UNH Advances to America East Final with 5-3 Win vs. Maine

Friday, November 8

Albany, N.Y.

11 AM

University of New Hampshire

(10-9, 4-2AEC)

Maine

(11-9, 3-3AEC)

Maine

New Hampshire

Photo by: Temi Bajulaiye

11/8/2024 3:26:00 PM | Field Hockey

Box Score Photo Gallery

ALBANY, N.Y. – Junior captain Nicole Poulakis (Ajax, Ontario) scored two goals to lead the University of New Hampshire field hockey team to a 5-3 victory against the University of Maine in Friday's America East semifinal at UAlbany's Alumni Turf.

The second-seeded Wildcats advance to the conference championship game, which will be played Nov. 10 (12 p.m.) at UAlbany, against the winner of the other semifinal between UAlbany and Vermont.

Sophomore Kathelijne Knuttel (Groningen, Netherlands) recorded a goal and an assist. Junior Brecken Calcari (St. Louis, Mo.) and freshman Faye Meijer (Purmerend, Netherlands) scored UNH's other goals and freshman goalie Abby Johnson (Walpole, Mass.) was credited with five saves.

Maine starting goalie Jayde Temby made six saves and exited the game with the Black Bears trailing 3-0 at 23:11. Rozarie Mrazova stopped 5 of 7 shots on goal in 33:39. Maine played with an extra field player for the final 3:20.

UNH improved to 10-9 to advance to its first conference title game since 2017. Maine ends the season at 11-9.

FIRST QUARTER

UNH pressured early and forced Temby to make three saves the opening 3:30 of the game.
Calcari struck first at 4:32 when she batted a ball out of the air into the cage five feet from the left post. Meijer initiated the scoring sequence with the entry into the circle from outside the 25 and Cookman's redirection from the top of the circle went high toward Calcari.
A persistent Poulakis extended the lead to 2-0 at 5:26. She advanced along the right end line and her first two shots were stopped by Temby. Poulakis took a step out toward the middle, but then pulled the ball back toward the right post and lifted a shot into the cage.
The Wildcats finished the first quarter with an 8-0 shot advantage.

SECOND QUARTER

The teams combined to score five goals in less than six minutes in the second quarter.
Before that flurry of goals, Maine earned its first penalty corner of the game at 19:11 but Johnson made a sweeping kick save to deny Poppy Lambert.
UNH converted a corner into a 3-0 lead at 21:41. Addison MacNeil (Brentwood, N.H.) inserted the ball to stick-stop Tasmin Cookman (London, England) and then Meijer back-tapped a pass to Knuttel on the top left. Her drive toward the middle of the cage was redirected by Poulakis in front for her second goal of the game.
In the 23^rd minute, Johnson made the initial save to stop Saylor Kuefler's shot from the right side of the circle, then scurried back toward the left post to direct Zoe Furber's shot over the crossbar.
Knuttel extended UNH's lead to 4-0 at 24:24. Cookman's low, hard shot from the top of the circle was stopped by Mrazova, but Knuttel corralled the rebound in front and deposited her second shot into the cage.
Kate Richardson scored 34 seconds later, however, to quickly trim the deficit to 4-1.
Alexandra Sacker and Furber scored goals 65 seconds apart at 26:18 and 27:23, respectively, to lift Maine within 4-3.

THIRD QUARTER

Maine recorded a 3-1 shot advantage in the third quarter but UNH scored the only goal to extend the lead.
Meijer corralled Calcari's pass behind the defense at 25 yards. At the top-left of the circle, Meijer dodged to her right to avoid Mrazova charging from the line and sent a shot into the open cage for a 5-3 lead at 37:35.

FOURTH QUARTER

UNH limited the Black Bears to one shot in the final 15 minutes – and it was blocked – to preserve the two-goal lead and advance out of the semifinals.
Maine pulled Mrazova in favor of an extra field player with 3:20 remaining but did not record a shot the rest of the way.

UNH NOTEBOOK

Sunday will be UNH's 13^th appearance in the America East championship game.
The Wildcats have won four titles – 1989, 1998, 2011, 2013 – and finished as runner-up eight times.
Poulakis has five career multiple-goal games; this was her first of the 2024 season.
She has scored a goal in eight of the last 11 games.
Poulakis ranks third on the team in goals (11) and is tied for third in points (24).
Knuttel moved into a four-way tie for #10 on UNH's single-season points leaderboard with 39.
She is UNH's leader in both goals (17) and points.
Knuttel extended her goal and point streaks to four games with five goals and two assists for 12 points in that span. She has tallied a point in 14 of 18 games this season.
Knuttel entered the weekend ranked No. 6 in the nation in goals per game and 11^th in points per game.