University of New Hampshire Athletics

On the Road Again April 9 at UMass Lowell (AE.tv)
4/7/2021 11:11:00 AM | Field Hockey
New Hampshire (4-5, 1-4 America East) at UMass Lowell (5-4, 3-3 AE)
Friday, April 9Â Â |Â Â 1 PM
Cushing Field    |  Lowell, Mass.
Friday, April 9Â Â |Â Â 1 PM
Cushing Field    |  Lowell, Mass.
WATCH on americaeast.tv  |  Live Stats
THE MATCHUP Â |Â CLICK HERE for series history, boxes & recaps (Oct. 2013-today)
- UNH has a 7-4 lifetime record against UMass Lowell, but the River Hawks have won the last three matchups.
- In the most recent meeting (Oct. 18, 2019), overtime was not enough to decide a winner as UMass Lowell prevailed 3-2 in a shootout.
- Eight of the past nine meetings have been decided by one goal.
- UNH's most recent win was Oct. 22, 2017 (4-3 at Memorial Field); that was the last of three consecutive Wildcat wins in the series.
- These programs first met in 2013, when UMass Lowell elevated to Division I and joined the America East conference.
THE STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE
- UNH has a 4-5 overall record that includes 0-3 on the road and 1-4 in America East (0-2 in conference road games).
- New Hampshire has a 1-2 record on Fridays with a win against UMass in the Feb. 26 season opener as well as a loss at Boston College (March 12) and home to UAlbany (March 19).
- The Wildcats are 1-4 the past five games.
- Most recently, the 'Cats lost 3-1 at Vermont on April 3.
- New Hampshire went 1-2 in a six-day spanning March 19-24; the Wildcats lost 1-0 to UAlbany (March 19), defeated UC Davis, 2-0 (March 21), and lost to Stanford, 3-0 (March 24).
- Six of UNH's nine games have ended with a shutout; the Wildcats have blanked three opponents and been shut out three times.
- Led by 30th-year head coach Robin Balducci, UNH returns seven starters and 14 letterwinners from the 2019 squad that went 8-10 with a pair of wins against nationally-ranked teams and advanced to the America East quarterfinals.
- The Wildcats also welcome back a redshirt freshman, have added one transfer and a total of nine freshmen.
- Eight 'Cats have started every game this season, and that includes freshman Lindsay Lee; classmate Rosalie Post has started all seven games that she has played and senior Erin Malone has eight starts in eight games played.
THE NUMBERS GAME
- New Hampshire has outscored the opposition 17-14 and has a slight edge in penalty corners (34-32), but the opponents have the edge in shots (107-87).
- The Wildcats are averaging 1.89 goals, 9.7 shots and 3.8 penalty corners per game. In comparison, opponents have averaged 1.56 goals, 11.9 shots and 3.6 corners per game.
- UNH has scored 17 goals on 87 shots for a .195 shooting percentage; the opponents are 14-for-107 (.131 shooting percentage).
STAT BREAKDOWN
- In four wins, UNH has allowed totals of one goal and 19 shots; that includes three shutouts as well as two games in which the Wildcats have limited the opponent to three shots.
- New Hampshire did not yield a penalty corner in consecutive games against UAlbany and UC Davis.
- In the five losses, the Wildcats have been outscored 13-3 and outshot 88-37.
- Sophomore goalie Jemma Woods recorded 10 saves and senior captain Bloem van den Brekel scored a fourth-quarter goal, but it was not enough to erase a three-goal deficit as Vermont recorded a 3-1 victory at Moulton Winder Field last Saturday (April 3).
- Woods made six of her 10 saves in the scoreless second quarter.
- UVM took a 1-0 lead in the 10th minute, then added goals in the 41st and 49th minutes.
- The Wildcats converted the second of back-to-back corners into van den Brekel's goal at 50:04.
- UVM allowed just one shot the rest of the way to preserve the win.
'CAT NIPS
- Woods has recorded double-digit saves each of the past two games and a total of three times this season. Prior to last weekend's 10-save effort at Vermont, Woods recorded a career-high 11 saves at Maine (March 28) and also had 10 saves at Boston College on March 12.
- van den Brekel scored her 20th career goal with the tally at Vermont.
- Sophomore Molly McAteer recorded her first career point with an assist at UVM.
- Senior captain Isabelle Danahy tallied her first point of the season with an assist against the Catamounts.
OFFENSIVE OUTPUT
- Sophomore Ava Mariani leads UNH in both goals (six) and points (12), as well as shooting percentage with six goals on 12 shots (that's a .500 shooting percentage); her .750 shots on goal percentage is best among the five Wildcats with 5+ shots.
- Mariani tied her career highs in both goals (two) and points (four) against both Merrimack and Maine this season.
- Junior Finn Caron ranks second in both goals (four) and points (eight). She has a team-high 17 shots. Caron matched her career highs in both goals (three) and points (six) against Merrimack on March 3.
- Senior captain Bloem van den Brekel has two goal and two assists for six points. van den Brekel ranks second on the team with 15 shots.
- van den Brekel and freshman Lindsay Lee are tied for the team lead in assists. Lee recorded both her assists in UNH's 2-0 win vs. UC Davis (March 21).
ACTIVE LEADERBOARD
- Senior captain Bloem van den Brekel has career totals of 20 goals and 16 assists for 56 points in 63 games. She is UNH's active leader in assists and points.
- Junior Finn Caron is the active leader in career goals with 21, and her 46 points rank second to van den Brekel.
- Senior captain Isabelle Danahy leads all current 'Cats with 66 games played.
DEFENDING THE CAGE
- Sophomore Jemma Woods has started each of the last eight games, and redshirt freshman Nikki Tredwell saw action the first two games of the season as well as March 28 at Maine.
- The duo combined to shut out Merrimack College on March 3 and has combined to record a 1.63 GAA and .797 save percentage.
- Woods has a 3-5 record with a 1.63 GAA, .803 save percentage (49 saves; 12 goals against) and two shutouts.
- She recorded her first career shutout March 14 against Northeastern; two days earlier, she tallied double-digit saves for the first time in her career with 10 at Boston College.
- Woods recorded her second shutout with a five-save effort in a 2-0 win vs. UC Davis on March 21.
- Tredwell is 1-0 with a 1.24 GAA and .750 save percentage in 97 minutes, 1 second (three games played). She made her collegiate debut by starting against UMass, and she stopped 5 of 6 shots to record her first career win in UNH's 3-1 victory on Feb. 26.
- Tredwell played the second half of the Merrimack game and did not face a shot on goal in 30 minutes.
- The Wildcats have one defensive save this season, and that was credited to freshman Rosalie Post in the UC Davis game.
NEW HAMPSHIRE RECEIVES NFHCA NATIONAL ACADEMIC TEAM AWARD
- UNH earned a 2020 NFHCA Division I National Academic Team Award, which honors programs that earned a team GPA of 3.0 or higher in the Fall 2020 semester.
THREE WILDCATS NAMED NFHCA SCHOLARS OF DISTINCTION
- Senior Conner Allen and freshmen Reagan Calcari and Olivia Watson were named NFHCA Scholars of Distinction on March 25. Allen has received this honor all four years.
- Student-athletes with a cumulative grade-point-average of 3.9 or higher through the first semester of the 2020-21 academic year earn this accolade.
ELEVEN 'CATS NAMED TO NATIONAL ACADEMIC SQUAD
- A total of 11 UNH field hockey players were named to the 2020 National Field Hockey Coaches Association Division I National Academic Squad.
- The National Academic Squad program honors student-athletes who have achieved a cumulative grade-point average of 3.30 or higher through the first semester of the 2020-21 academic year.
- Conner Allen and Erin Malone have been named to the National Academic Squad all four years.
- Isabelle Danahy and Tori Palumbo were feted for the third consecutive year.
- Reagan Calcari, Gigi Fay, Lindsay Lee, Molly McAteer, Nikki Tredwell, Olivia Watson and Jemma Woods were all first-time honorees.
THE CAPTAINS
- UNH is captained by seniors Isabelle Danahy and Bloem van den Brekel.
- Danahy started 35 of 36 games the previous two seasons, including all 18 in the 2019 season. The midfielder/back ranked fourth among field players in minutes played (960 of a possible 1,125) and recorded a total of six points on two goals and two assists.
- This season, Danahy has started every game and played 446 of a possible 540 minutes. She has one point with an assist at Vermont (April 3).
- van den Brekel has already had a highly-decorated career at UNH. She was named to the NFHCA Northeast Region First Team in 2019, one year after making the Second Team. van den Brekel has also been selected to the America East East Division All-Conference Team each of the past two years.
- The midfielder tied for the lead in assists (three), tied for third in points (11) and tied for fourth in goals (four) in the 2019 season, when she was also credited with a defensive save.
- This season, van den Brekel has started every game and played 510 of 540 minutes.
THE SENIORS
- UNH has five seniors, including the aforementioned captains, on the Spring 2021 roster.
- Erin Malone has been an anchor of New Hampshire's defensive unit the past two years. She had nine starts in 12 games as a sophomore in 2018 and increased those numbers to 15 starts in 17 games in 2019. Malone was credited with one defensive save in '19.
- Malone did not play in the 2021 opener but has started each of the past eight games and played the full 60 each of the past seven games; she has been on the field 473 of 480 minutes.
- Conner Allen is one of the lynchpins at midfield. In her first year as a Wildcat in 2019, Allen played in 16 games with eight starts, including the last five games of the regular season.
- Allen recorded her first point as a 'Cat with an assist in the March 14 win against Northeastern.
- She leads all Wildcats in minutes played with 530 of a possible 540.
- In the Feb. 26 season opener, Allen made a key defensive stop at the 25 when her tackle denied UMass' potential 2-on-1 rush, and she has continued to make impactful defensive plays.
- Megan Borneman adds depth to the defensive unit. She played in four games her first three years as a Wildcat. She made her spring 2021 debut in the game vs. Merrimack and also saw action vs. Northeastern and Stanford.
THREE IN A HURRY
- New Hampshire scored four goals in the second quarter of the March 3 game vs. Merrimack, three of which were scored in a span of 3 minutes, 56 seconds. Sophomore Ava Mariani ignited the spurt just 28 seconds into the second quarter, followed by consecutive goals by junior Finn Caron at 17:08 and 19:24 to extend UNH's lead to 5-0.
- In the Feb. 26 season opener vs. UMass, the Wildcats scored three third-quarter goals in 3 minutes, 4 seconds to quickly transform a 1-0 deficit into a 3-1 lead.
- Mariani scored off a rebound at 33:00 to ignite the rally and then Caron converted another rebound into a goal and 2-1 lead at 35:16.
- Senior captain Bloem van den Brekel scored 48 seconds later when she intercepted a clearing attempt on the right side of the circle and fired a reverse-stick into the cage.
WILDCATS RANKED IN FIRST NATIONAL POLL OF SEASON
- New Hampshire entered the inaugural Penn-Monto NFHCA Division I Coaches Poll of the season (that was released March 16) at No. 18.
- The Wildcats were the only America East team in that top-20 poll.
- At #18, Stanford is the only conference team ranked in this week's NFHCA poll (April 6).
UNH PICKED FIFTH IN AMERICA EAST PRESEASON POLL
- UNH was voted fifth in the Spring 2021 America East Field Hockey Preseason Poll that was released Feb. 17.
- Monmouth topped the poll with 60 points and five first-place votes. Maine (56 points; three first-place votes) was next, followed by a tie for third between Stanford and UAlbany with 46 points.
- UNH (32) was followed by Cal (29), UMass Lowell (21), Vermont (18) and UC Davis (16).
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UNH ATHLETICS COVID-19 SPECTATOR POLICY
- Members of the general public, including family and friends of student-athletes, are not permitted to attend any UNH Athletics events for the safety of all UNH students, student-athletes, and essential staff working events.
- No fans are allowed at Memorial Field.
- Please review the UNH Athletics COVID-19 Spectator Policy
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