Field Hockey Wins America East Championship

Friday, November 7

Burlington, Vt.

1 PM

University of New Hampshire

(12-6)

Vermont

(11-8)

New Hampshire

Vermont

team celebrate_AW_1107_AEChampionship_FHOC_471

Photo by: Alex Weiss

11/7/2025 6:54:00 PM | Field Hockey

Box Score

UNH defeats Vermont, 1-0, in Double Overtime

BURLINGTON, Vt – Senior captain Nicole Poulakis (Ajax, Ontario) scored 1:41 into double overtime to lift the University of New Hampshire field hockey team to the America East championship with a 1-0 victory against the University of Vermont at Moulton Winder Field on Friday afternoon.

Senior captain Tasmin Cookman (London, England) advanced down the left wing before cutting to the top of the circle, where she blasted a waist-high shot toward the right post that was redirected by Poulakis into the cage.

Sophomore goalkeeper Abby Johnson (Walpole, Mass.) stopped all three shots on target to record her second shutout of the season and first in an America East title game since 2018.

Poulakis, who also scored twice in the semifinal, was named the 2025 America East Tournament Most Outstanding Player. She is joined on the All-Championship Team by Cookman, junior captain Kathelijne Knuttel (Groningen, Netherlands) and sophomore Faye Meijer (Purmerend, Netherlands).

Senior forward Brecken Calcari (St. Louis, Mo.) was named recipient of the Elite 18 award, which recognizes the student-athlete in the championship game with the highest cumulative GPA, for the second consecutive year. Calcari is a business administration: marketing major with a 3.98 GPA.

UVM goalie Merle Vaandrager made five saves. Neither goalie was credited with a save in the overtime sessions.

UNH, America East regular season co-champs and tourney No. 2 seed with a 4-1 conference record, extended its winning streak to five games to improve to 12-6 overall. Vermont, the No. 1 seed, is 11-8.

UP NEXT

UNH earns the conference's automatic qualifier into the NCAA championship tournament. The NCAA selection show is Sunday, Nov. 9 at 10pm on ncaa.com.

FIRST QUARTER

UNH controlled possession for most of the opening 15 minutes and generated a 4-3 shot advantage with a 3-0 edge in penalty corners.
Midway through the first quarter, Emily Coughlin (Marshfield, Mass.) blasted a shot from the middle of the circle that was kicked aside by Vaandrager.
That pressure led to back-to-back corners, both of which yielded direct shots by Marlijn Swaan (Hilversum, Netherlands) that were stopped by Vaandrager.

In the closing minute, Addison MacNeil (Brentwood, N.H.) fired a reverse-stick from the left side that Vaandrager kicked away.

SECOND QUARTER

UNH continued to control possession in the second quarter with a 4-1 shot advantage and 3-0 edge in corners.
In the 20^th minute, Poulakis advanced along the right endline, regained possession in the middle and had a shot blocked by a defender.

In the 28^th minute, MacNeil inserted a short corner to Knuttel, whose drive was steered away by Vaandrager.

THIRD QUARTER

Vermont began to carry more play in the third quarter, which resulted in a 2-0 shot advantage

FOURTH QUARTER

Defenses continued to play strong as both teams were limited to one shot in the fourth quarter.
UVM's opportunity came in the 48^th minute off a corner, but Johnson slid to her right to direct Sophia Lefranc's shot wide of the cage.

UNH generated pressure in the circle and Meijer settled a loose ball at the top of the circle before striking a shot into the cage with 4:27 on the clock, but the goal was disallowed after review.

FIRST OVERTIME

UNH reasserted control in the first 10-minute overtime session and generated a 2-0 shot advantage.

SECOND OVERTIME

UNH scored on the first shot of the second extra session to end the game and win the championship.

Cookman split a pair of defenders along the left sideline and dodged another to get to the top of the circle, where she continued on the run into open space before sending a shot toward the right post that Poulakis bunted into the cage at 71:41.

UNH NOTEBOOK

This is UNH's fifth conference title – the others were in 1989, 1998, 2011 and 2013.
UNH has played in 14 championship games, including each of the last two.
Poulakis, the America East Offensive Player of the Year, extended her goal streak to nine games and point streak to 15 with the game-winning tally. She has 23 goals and eight assists for 54 points during the streak.
On UNH's career leaderboard, Poulakis is #2 in both goals (60) and points (149); she is #5 in career assists (29).
Poulakis is #8 on the America East all-time leaderboard in both goals and points.
On the program's single-season leaderboard, Poulakis climbed into a tie for #3 in goals (23) with Whitney Frates (2011) and Meg Shea (2009). Poulakis is #5 in points (54).
Cookman, named to the All-Conference First Team for the fourth consecutive year, is #4 in career assists (33), #5 in points (134) and #6 in goals (51).
Johnson has five career shutouts.

GAME NOTEBOOK