'Cats Play Wednesday Matinee vs. No. 6 Stony Brook (AE.tv)

#6 Stony Brook (10-2, 6-0 America East) at New Hampshire (3-6, 2-5 AE)
Wednesday, April 28 | 11 AM
Wildcat Stadium | Durham, N.H.

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THE MATCHUP | CLICK HERE for series history (2006-2020 seasons)

UNH has a 7-14 lifetime record against Stony Brook. The Seawolves have won 12 consecutive matchups against the Wildcats.
In the most recent matchup (April 28, 2019), Stony Brook led 16-0 at halftime en route to a 17-5 victory at Wildcat Stadium.
The last time UNH defeated Stony Brook was April 16, 2011; that was the last of four consecutive Wildcat wins.
This head-to-head series began in the 2003 season when SBU began play in the America East conference.

COMPARISON SHOPPING

Stony Brook leads America East in offense at 14.83 goals per game; UNH is No. 7 at 10.89.
SBU scores on 45.5 percent of its shots; in comparison, New Hampshire scores on 37.5 percent.
The Seawolves are also No. 1 in defense (8.42 GAA) and the Wildcats rank fifth (12.82).
SBU also leads the conference in shots per game (32.58) and UNH is No. 6 (29.00).
The Seawolves commit the fewest turnovers per game (12.92); UNH is No. 5 at 14.67 turnovers per game.
Stony Brook is No. 4 in draw controls per game (13.83) and New Hampshire is No. 8 (10.56).
UNH has the edge in one stat: ground balls. The 'Cats have averaged 17.78 ground balls per game in comparison to the Seawolves' 16.25, which ranks seventh.

THE STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE

UNH is led by ninth-year head coach Sarah Albrecht, who was named America East Coach of the Year in 2019, when the Wildcats finished 10-7 overall and 5-2 in America East.
New Hampshire has a 3-6 overall record that includes 2-5 in conference games.
The Wildcats are 2-2 at home – with a split of 2-1 at Wildcat Stadium and 0-1 at Tucker Field -- and 1-4 on the road.
UNH's streak of alternating wins and losses stopped at five games when the Wildcats lost back-to-back games last week to Binghamton (13-10) and Vermont (13-9).
Because of COVID protocols, UNH did not play a game between March 27 (16-14 loss at UMass Lowell) and April 18 (12-8 win at Hartford).
Four Wildcats have started every game. That number was 11 prior to the March 27 game at UMass Lowell and was at seven prior to the April 18 game at Hartford.
Five more 'Cats have eight starts in eight games played.
The 2021 Wildcats are captained by grad student Rylee Leonard and senior Tatum Benesh. Leonard was an America East All-Conference Second Team honoree in 2019 and redshirted the '20 season.
The 27-player roster has a breakdown of one grad student, five seniors, nine juniors, five sophomores and seven freshmen.
The 2020 Wildcats were 1-4 when the remainder of the season was canceled the second week of March because of COVID-19.

FOUR-GAME HOMESTAND

UNH is scheduled to close the 2021 regular season with four consecutive home games.
The homestand began Wednesday, April 21 with a 13-10 loss to Binghamton (at Tucker Field), continued April 24 vs. Vermont with a 13-9 loss at Wildcat Stadium, and wraps up with two games this week -- April 28 (Stony Brook) and May 1 (Hartford).

STAT CHECK

UNH is averaging 10.89 goals on 29.0 shots per game in comparison to the opponents' 13.00 goals and 30.0 shots per game.
The Wildcats fire 71.6 percent of their shots on goal and score on 37.5 percent of their shots. The opponents put 74.1 percent of shots on goal and score on 43.3 percent of their total shots.
New Hampshire has the edge in turnovers (132-151) and ground balls are virtually even (160-156 in favor of the Wildcats).
The opposition is averaging 4.6 more draw controls per game.
UNH is scoring at a higher percentage on free-position shots; the Wildcats are 19-for-35 (54.3%) in comparison to the opposition's 24 of 54 (44.4%).
New Hampshire's .867 clear percentage (157 of 181) is lower than the opponents' mark of .890 (146 of 164).
There was a significant disparity in back-to-back games vs. UMass Lowell and Hartford with UNH at 75.0% (36-for-48) and the opponents at 96.7% (29 of 30).
However, the Wildcats narrowed that gap in two games last week. UNH was 41 of 42 (97.6%) on clear attempts in comparison to the opposition's 35-for-42 (83.3%).

CONFERENCE CALL

Junior Meghan Doyle leads all America East players with 1.88 caused turnovers per game and is No. 3 in ground balls per game (2.75).
Neyland is ranked No. 3 in America East in shots per game (7.88), No. 8 in goals per game (2.75) and No. 7 in points per game (3.63).
Leonard enters the week No. 6 in the conference in assists per game (1.00).
Junior goalkeeper Issy Torres is No. 3 in saves per game (9.22).

ANOTHER GAME, ANOTHER POINT

Leonard is the only Wildcat who has recorded a point in all nine games this season.
Leonard scored a goal last Saturday vs. Vermont to extend her point streak to 25 consecutive games; she redshirted last season and finished the 2019 season with a point each of the last 16 games; the last game played in which Leonard did not record a point was Feb. 16, 2019 vs. Harvard.
Leonard has tallied 45 goals and 31 assists for 76 points (3.04 points/game) during the 24-game point streak.
The next longest point streak of seven games is held by sophomore Liv Dunn (11-3-14).

50 GOAL MILESTONE

Grad student Rylee Leonard scored her 50^th career goal with the second of her three tallies March 27 at UMass Lowell.
Leonard is UNH's active leader in career assists (32), points (87) and games played (43); she is No. 2 in goals (55).
Senior Julia Neyland scored her 50^th career goal with the last of her personal-best six goals March 20 vs. UMBC.
Neyland is UNH's active leader in goals (57); she also has 26 assists for a total of 83 points in 40 games.

NEYLAND'S NUMBERS

Julia Neyland is UNH's leader in both goals (22) and points (29), as well as shots (63), despite missing one game (March 27 at UMass Lowell).
Her 63 shots are almost equal to that of the next two on the list, who have a combined 71 shots.
Neyland scored a career-high six goals March 20 vs. UMBC for a personal best of six points.
She netted five goals on 10 shots April 18 at Hartford.
Neyland matched her personal best of two assists in both games last week against Binghamton and Vermont.
The senior attacker fired 11 shots in the March 6 overtime game at UAlbany and 10 twice -- at Hartford and at Vermont (March 13).

LAST TIME OUT | Box Score | Recap | Video Highlights

Vermont ended the first half on a 4-0 run to take a 6-2 lead into halftime, and the Catamounts went on to a 13-9 victory last Saturday at Wildcat Stadium.
Sophomore Liv Dunn scored at 19:44 to give UNH a 1-0 lead, and that proved to be the Wildcats' only lead of the game.
UVM opened the second half on a 4-2 run to push the advantage to 10-4 at 12:23.
The Wildcats scored back-to-back goals to trim the deficit to 10-6 at 8:51.
The teams exchanged goals 19 seconds apart (UVM at 8:23 and UNH at 8:04) to advance the score to 11-7.
Neither team scored for nearly four minutes, then Vermont struck at 2:17 and again at 1:39 to reestablish a six-goal margin.

'CAT NIPS

Senior Elizabeth Blanding recorded a team-high four points vs. Vermont with two goals and two assists. The two assists matched a career high and four points marked a season high.
Classmate Julia Neyland recorded a goal and two assists for the second consecutive game; the two assists equaled her personal best.
Junior Taylor Dudek tied her career high of five ground balls and also caused two turnovers.
Classmate Meghan Doyle finished with four ground balls and three caused turnovers.
Freshman Olivia O'Connor recorded her first career assist and also scored a goal to match her high of two points.
Classmate Mackenzie MacEachern recorded her second consecutive multiple-point game with a goal and an assist.
Kailee Woods, another freshman, has scored a goal each of her last three games played.
Junior Delaney Pratt finished with a game-high five draw controls.

UNH LEADERBOARD

As mentioned earlier, Julia Neyland is atop the UNH leaderboard in goals (22), points (29) and shots (63).
Grad student and captain Rylee Leonard has a team-high nine assists and has scored 12 goals to rank second in points with 21. Leonard's 12 goals ranks third, and she is also second in draw controls with 17.
Sophomore Liv Dunn is second on the squad in goals (16) and third in both assists (four), and points (20).
Junior Meghan Doyle, who recorded a career-high five ground balls vs. UMBC and followed that with four at UMass Lowell, leads the Wildcats with 22 ground balls.
Doyle also tallied three caused turnovers against UMBC and two more vs. the River Hawks; she has a team-leading total of 15.
Senior captain Tatum Benesh ranks third in both ground balls (15) and caused turnovers (eight).
Junior Taylor Dudek is second in caused turnovers (nine) and fourth in ground balls (14).
Junior goalie Issy Torres ranks second with 16 ground balls.
Junior Delaney Pratt is the top 'Cat with 24 draw controls. She also ranks fourth in goals with nine.

LAST LINE OF DEFENSE

Junior goalie Issy Torres has played all 547 minutes, 30 seconds this season; she has a 3-6 record with a 12.82 GAA and .415 save percentage.
Torres was honored as America East Defensive Player of the Week on April 19; she made 11 saves and had a game-high four ground balls in the 12-8 win at Hartford (April 18).
Torres has tallied double-digit saves four times this season, including the aforementioned 11 at Hartford and a high of 13 in the March 20 overtime win against UMBC. She finished with 11 saves at Vermont (March 13) and 10 at UConn (Feb. 28).
She has made 10+ saves 10 times in 31 career games (30 starts).

MADE OF GRANITE

There are six Wildcats who hail from the Granite State; they are senior midfielder Gabby Masseur (Nashua), junior midfielder Abby Cranney (Amherst), junior defender Taylor Dudek (Amherst), sophomore midfielder Jessie Hounchell (Manchester), freshman midfielder Mackenzie MacEachern (Bedford), and freshman defender Izzy Aiello (Mont Vernon).

PLAYING OVERTIME

New Hampshire is 1-1 in overtime this season with a 13-12 loss at UAlbany (March 6) and 14-13 win vs. UMBC (March 20).
The previous time the Wildcats won in overtime was April 2, 2016 (9-8 at Binghamton).
The last time UNH played two overtime games in a single season was 2017.

AT THE POLLS

UNH was selected third in the 2021 America East Women's Lacrosse Preseason Poll that was released Feb. 9.
Stony Brook received all seven possible first-place votes and 49 points to sit atop the poll. UAlbany received the other first-place vote and 43 points.
UNH was next with 34 points, followed by UMBC (30), Vermont (26), Binghamton (21), UMass Lowell (15) and Hartford (7).

TORRES NAMED AE DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK

Junior goalie Issy Torres was named Defensive Player of the Week by the America East conference on April 19.
Torres recorded 11 saves and game-high four ground balls to backbone UNH to a 12-8 victory at the University of Hartford on April 18. The four ground balls matched her career high and the 11 saves marked the fourth time in seven games this season she has recorded double-digit saves.
Torres made eight saves in the second half, two of which were in the opening five minutes and kept the Wildcats in front, 6-5. After Hartford scored to pull within 10-8, Torres made a save on a free position with 4:55 remaining to keep the margin at two goals.

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Players Mentioned

Izzy Aiello

Tatum Benesh

Elizabeth Blanding

Abby Cranney

Meghan Doyle

Taylor Dudek

Liv Dunn

Jesslyn Hounchell

Rylee Leonard

Mackenzie MacEachern

Gabby Masseur

Julia Neyland

Olivia O'Connor

Delaney Pratt

Issy Torres

Kailee Woods

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