Homestand Ends With Border Battle vs. Maine on March 7 (AE.tv)

BORDER BATTLE presented by Buffalo Wild Wings
Maine (0-2-0, 0-0-0 America East) at UNH (3-0-0, 0-0-0 America East)
Sunday, March 7 | 2 p.m.
Wildcat Stadium | Durham, N.H.

WATCH on AE.TV | Live Stats

UNH Women's Soccer Home Page
Maine Women's Soccer Home Page

THE MATCHUP | CLICK HERE to view recent series history (Oct. 2007-Oct. 2019)

New Hampshire has a 3-3-2 record vs. Maine since UNH head coach Steve Welham took the reins in the 2014 season.
The Wildcats hold a 3-1-0 edge the past four meetings.
In the most recent matchup (Oct. 17, 2019 at Wildcat Stadium), UNH prevailed 2-0 on goals by Ally Reynolds in the 9^th and 84^th minutes; Maine recorded an 11-6 shot advantage, but both teams had three shots on goal.
Nine of the last 10 matchups have been decided by one goal (seven times) or ended in a tie (two times).
Five of the last eight games have gone into overtime.
UNH has won three straight matchups in Durham. Maine's most recent road win in the series was Oct. 15, 2015 (2-1 in overtime).
The Black Bears have an 8-5-2 edge the past 15 meetings.

WILDCATS RECEIVE A PAIR OF WEEK 2 CONFERENCE AWARDS

Sophomore midfielder Whitney Wiley (Vienna, Va.) and freshman back Alivia Kelly (Pembroke, Mass.) were named the America East Offensive Player of the Week and Rookie of the Week, respectively, this past Tuesday.
Wiley scored a total of three goals, including two game-winning tallies, and an assist for seven points as UNH defeated Merrimack, 5-1, on Feb. 24 and URI, 2-0, on Feb. 28.
She matched her career high of two goals and also had an assist for a personal-best five points against Merrimack.
It is the first career conference Player of the Week award for Wiley.
Kelly anchored UNH's backline as the Wildcats allowed a total of four shots on goal and one goal. The 'Cats yielded five shots – two on goal – vs. Merrimack. And with Kelly once again directing the defensive unit against URI, the Rams recorded seven shots and once again only two were on goal.
This is the second award of the season for Kelly, who was selected to the TopDrawer.com Team of the Week on Feb. 16.

THE STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE

UNH enters Sunday's game with a 3-0-0 record with all three games played at Wildcat Stadium.
This is the second time the past four seasons the Wildcats have opened with three wins; the 'Cats were also 3-0-0 in 2017.
It is also the fourth time in seven years under coach Welham that New Hampshire is unbeaten through the first three games of the season; the Wildcats were 1-0-2 in both 2015 and 2016. Only the '16 team extended the unbeaten streak to four matches with a win the next game to move to 2-0-2.
Dating back to the 1985 season, no UNH team has begun a season with four consecutive wins.
The 'Cats christened the Spring 2021 season with a 2-0 win vs. Northeastern (Feb. 14), then upended Merrimack College, 5-1 (Feb. 24) and Rhode Island, 2-0 (Feb. 28).

NO PLACE LIKE HOME

New Hampshire is scheduled to open the Spring 2021 season with four consecutive home games. Sunday's match vs. Maine is the last in the series.
Dating back to the 2019 season, UNH has won six consecutive home games. The Wildcats' most recent loss in Durham was Oct. 13, 2019 (2-0 to UAlbany).
Spanning the 2019 and Spring 2021 seasons, UNH is 9-3-0 at home.

CLEAN SHEETS AND SHUTOUT STREAKS

New Hampshire has recorded two clean sheets in three games. The last time the Wildcats shut out two of the first three opponents in a season was 2016.
UNH's one goal allowed in the first three games is also the fewest since that '16 squad surrendered one goal through three games; and those 2016 Wildcats recorded a shutout in Game 4.
UNH's season-opening shutout streak ended at 140 minutes, 30 seconds when Merrimack scored in the 51^st minute of Game 2 (Feb. 24).
The Wildcats take an active shutout streak of 129:30 into Sunday's game vs. Maine.

SHEPPARD'S SEVENTH SHUTOUT

Junior goalie Cat Sheppard recorded her second shutout of the season and seventh of her career with two saves in UNH's 2-0 win against Rhode Island on Feb. 28.
Sheppard tallied her sixth career clean sheet with a three-save effort in UNH's 1-0 victory against Northeastern at Wildcat Stadium on Feb. 14.
Sheppard shut out five opponents in the 2019 season.

HIGH OCTANE OFFENSE

New Hampshire has scored eight goals in three games for an average of 2.67 goals per game. It marks the highest total through three games since the 2007 Wildcats also netted eight goals through three matches; that squad increased the total to 11 goals through four games.
UNH is averaging 11.0 shots per game with 25 of its 33 shots on target (75.8%). In comparison, the opponents are averaging 6.0 shots with 7 of 18 on goal (38.9%).

UNH TOPPLES RHODE ISLAND

UNH scored goals in the 52^nd and 82^nd minute to record a 2-0 victory against the University of Rhode Island at Wildcat Stadium last Sunday.
Sophomore Whitney Wiley converted a penalty kick at 51:46 when she drove the ball into the lower-left corner for her team-leading third goal of the season.
Senior captain Francesca Picicci finished a feed from freshman Emily Bini into her second goal of the season for a 2-0 lead at 81:00. It was Bini's first career point.
UNH recorded an 11-7 shot advantage (8-2 on goal) with an 11-3 edge in corner kicks.

'CAT NIPS

Sophomore Whitney Wiley and senior captain Francesca Picicci have scored five of UNH's eight goals this season with three and two, respectively. Both have one assist, which has come on a goal scored by the other, and both carry a two-game goal-scoring streak into Sunday's matchup vs. Maine.
Freshman Anna Hewlett recorded an assist each of the first two games and is one of three players atop the America East conference with two assists.
Ten Wildcats have started all three games.

REVAMPED ROSTER

UNH's Spring 2021 team, led by seventh-year head coach Steve Welham, has a very different looking roster from the one that went 10-8-0, scored 28 goals (the most by UNH since '07), shut out six opponents and advanced to the America East semifinals in the 2019 season.
This year's roster is comprised of three seniors, four juniors, five sophomores and 12 freshmen.

THE CAPTAINS

Seniors Casey Peterson and Francesca Picicci are the captains.
Peterson is one of three returning starters. The midfield/forward played in 16 of 18 games, was in the starting lineup 15 times and played 1,312 of a possible 1,621 minutes. She tallied one point on an assist and a total of nine shots. Peterson has 30 starts the past two seasons.
Picicci, a forward/midfield player, saw action in all 18 games and was in the starting lineup once (Sept. 29 at Binghamton University); she played a total of 440 minutes.

ALIVIA KELLY RECEIVES NATIONAL RECOGNITION

Freshman back Alivia Kelly was named to the TopDrawerSoccer.com Women's Team of the Week: Feb. 9-15. She scored the game's only goal in a 1-0 victory against Northeastern University on Feb. 14 and helped the Wildcats record a clean sheet by limiting the Huskies to six shots (three on goal).

SHEPPARD RECEIVES CONFERENCE HONOR IN FIRST WEEKLY AWARDS

Junior goalkeeper Cat Sheppard was named America East Defensive Player of the Week on Feb. 23. Sheppard stopped all three shots on goal to backbone UNH to a 1-0 season-opening victory against Northeastern University at Wildcat Stadium on Feb. 14. She was credited with two saves in the first half and maintained the clean sheet with one more save in the final 45 minutes.

UNH PICKED FIFTH IN AMERICA EAST PRESEASON POLL

The University of New Hampshire women's soccer team was picked fifth in the Spring 2021 America East Women's Soccer Preseason Poll that was released Feb. 10.
Stony Brook University received all nine possible first-place votes and a total of 81 points in the poll. The University of Hartford received the other first-place vote and 70 points. The third through sixth spots were separated by 11 points with UAlbany (58 points) followed by UMass Lowell (53), UNH (50) and Binghamton University (47).

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