CAMBRIDGE, Mass.-- Helping the Great Danes earn their third straight berth to the America East Women's Lacrosse Championship last week, Albany sophomore attack Jodi Battaglia (Amherst, N.Y./Amherst Central) earned the league's Player of the Week accolade. Teammate junior Christine Grueniger (Lindenhurst, N.Y./Lindenhurst) received the Defender of the Week award from the league office, while UMBC freshman attack Emily Coady (Westminster, Md./Westminster) earned Rookie of the Week honors.
Battaglia posted career highs in points (8) and assists (3) in a 19-9 victory over Stony Brook last week. Along with a game-high five goals, the sophomore recorded the highest single-game scoring total by an Albany player since April 27, 2002. Battaglia scored twice, broke up two clearing plays and added an assist in a run of six unanswered scores tat reversed a 4-2 deficit in the first half against the Seawolves. The multiple goal game was the 10th of the season for Battaglia, who is averaging 2.20 goals per game this season, ninth in America East.
Grueniger was all over the field while riding the Stony Brook attack in a 19-9 win on Saturday. The junior who recently returned to the lineup after missing three games with a leg injury posted career highs in ground balls (6) and caused turnovers (3). She intercepted a clearing pass and earned an assist on a Battaglia tally for a 5-4 lead in the first half before she drove around a screen to score and give the Great Danes a two-goal advantage. Grueniger added another goal in the second half, bringing her game total to three points, her highest scoring total since March 13th.
Coady tallied four points on two goals and two assists in UMBC's 17-7 victory over Le Moyne last week. She also added two ground balls, two caused turnovers and a draw control. The rookie leads the Retrievers with 13 assists on the season, and her 34 points are tied for the second-best total on the team.
The 2009 America East Women's Lacrosse Championship will be held April 30 and May 2 at Boston University's Nickerson Field. The Terriers earned the right to host the four-team tournament by clinching the top seed with a 19-9 win over Binghamton last Saturday.
Team Notebooks:
UAlbany (8-7, 4-2 America East) clinched an America East postseason tournament berth for the third consecutive year with a 19-9 road win at Stony Brook on April 18... The Great Danes, who have won seven of their last nine, have reached the eight-win mark for the fourth season in a row... UAlbany can set its Division I single-season win standard with a victory at non-league opponent Le Moyne on April 25... The Great Danes’ 4-2 league record matches their best-ever conference mark... Jodi Battaglia (Amherst, N.Y./Amherst Central) had five goals and a career-best three assists against Stony Brook, as her team recorded its largest win margin in A-East play in more than two years... Battaglia posted the highest single-scoring total by a UAlbany player since April 27, 2002... Christine Grueniger (Lindenhurst, N.Y./Lindenhurst) turned in her best effort of the season with career-highs in ground balls (6) and caused turnovers (3)... Grueniger, who recently missed three games with a leg injury, added two goals and one assist.... Freshman Melanie Sosnowski (Massapequa Park, N.Y./Massapequa) accounted for a career-best four points (3 g, 1 a), while Rory Redmond (Baldwin, N.Y. / Baldwin) equaled a career-high with three goals... Goalkeeper Katie Neer (Baldwinsville, N.Y./C.W. Baker) made seven saves and moved to fourth on the program’s career chart with 279... Kayla Best (Guilderland, N.Y./Guilderland) had three-plus goals for the ninth time this season... Best, who scored three times at Stony Brook, extended her goal-scoring streak to 45 consecutive games, the nation’s second-longest mark... The junior midfielder is tied for sixth on UAlbany’s single-season scoring list with 52 points (41 g, 11 a)... Nikki Branchini (Guilderland, N.Y./Guilderland) had eight draw controls.
Binghamton (3-11, 0-5) lost their only game of the week to No. 11 Boston University, 19-5, on Saturday at Nickerson Field. Freshman Meg Brown led the Bearcats with two goals, and also scoring for Binghamton were sophomores Beth Moore and Ali Castiglie, and freshman Riley Newman. The Terriers enjoyed a 26-4 shot advantage in the first half and would convert on three of four free position shots. However, Binghamton edged Boston in the second half, out shooting the Terriers, 8-6. Binghamton returns home for the final two games of the season hosting Marist on Tuesday April 21 at 4 p.m. and wraps up conference play next Saturday April 25 with New Hampshire at 1 p.m.
Powered by a career-best six goals from junior Traci Landy, the 11th-ranked Boston University lacrosse team (11-3, 5-0) clinched its fifth straight America East regular-season title with a 19-5 win over Binghamton on Saturday afternoon at Nickerson Field... Both the semifinals and the final of the 2009 America East Championship on April 30 and May 2 will be held on Nickerson Field... Senior Sarah Dalton and junior McKinley Curro also tallied hat tricks for the Terriers. Curro tallied six points with three goals and three assists, while Dalton (4g, 1a) and junior Erica Baumgartner (2g, 3a) each chipped in five points for BU. Seven players scored for the Terriers with junior Jenny Taft netting a pair of goals as well... The Terriers finished with a 32-12 advantage in shots and held a 16-15 edge in ground balls... BU won 19 of 26 draw controls, with Rachel Collins controlling six and senior Kelly Munroe coming away with five... Junior Rachel Klein made four saves in the BU cage, as did sophomore Emily Miller across the field for Binghamton... The Terriers return to action on Wednesday (April 22) at 6 p.m., hosting 14th-ranked Dartmouth at Nickerson Field for the final non-conference tilt of the regular season.
UMBC (9-7, 3-2) won its third straight game, defeating non-conference foe Le Moyne 17-7, on Saturday in the Retrievers’ home finale... Sophomore midfielder Ashley Stodter (Silver Spring, Md./Good Counsel) scored a career-high five points on three goals and two assists... Freshman attack Emily Coady (Westminster, Md./Westminster) added four points on two goals and two assists, while senior attack Abbey Swift (Baltimore, Md./Towson) also tallied four points on a goal and three helpers... Sophomore midfielder Amanda Pappas (Pasadena, Md./Chesapeake) notched a natural hat trick with three goals in the first half... Senior goalie Susie Sweeney (Madison, N.J./Madison) made four saves in the first half, while junior keeper Kate Quick (Phoenix, Md./Maryvale Prep) stopped nine shots in the second stanza... Eight Retrievers have tallied at least 20 points on the season... Four players have scored at least 20 goals, the most to do so since 2007... Stodter has scored at least one goal in 15 of 16 games this season, including a team-best 14 in a row... Six of UMBC’s top nine scorers this season are underclassmen... The Retrievers’ nine wins and three America East victories in 2009 are their most since 2006, when they won a share of the conference’s regular-season title... The Retrievers conclude the regular season on Saturday, April 25, at league-leading and nationally-ranked Boston University.
19th-ranked UNH (10-6, 3-2) concluded its four-game homestand with a 17-4 victory against Vermont on April 18, which was Senior Day for the Wildcats ... The six-member Class of 2009 compiled 12 goals, one assist, 15 ground balls, eight caused turnovers and four draw controls in that game; the team totals were 17 goals five assists, 25 GB, 13 CTO and 12 DC ... Michaela Hardy (Reading, Mass./Reading) scored her 100th career goal with her first of three; she now has 102 goals and 14 assists for 116 points ... Ashley Durepo (Concord, N.H./Concord) scored a career-high five goals and finished with six points, as well as a game-high four ground balls ... Her second GB of the game was the 100th of her career ... Shaunna Kaplan (Framingham, Mass./Framingham) matched her career high of five points with three goals and two assists to extend her point-scoring streak to nine games ... Kelli LaPerch (Brewster, N.Y./Brewster) matched Durepo’s game-high total of four ground balls and scored her second career goal ... Sarah Von Bargen (East Setauket, N.Y./Ward Melville) scored three goals to climb to #6 on UNH’s single-season goal leaderboard; she also ascended into a tie for seventh on the single-season points list ... UNH has won 10+ games each of the past two years and in five of the last six ... The ?Cats will make their America East record 12th consecutive league tournament appearance and will play Binghamton in the regular-season finale.
Stony Brook (4-11, 1-4) fell to Albany, 19-9, on Senior Day at Kenneth P. LaValle Stadium... Senior Kaitlin Leggio (Bay Shore, N.Y./Bay Shore) scored a team-high four goals and broke Amy Taylor’s school record of 148, set in 2007... Leggio now has 150 career goals to her credit... The Seawolves led 4-2 early in the first half, but Albany rattled off six unanswered goals... A 9-6 score was the closest Stony Brook got in the second half... With four or more assists in her next game, Leggio could be the first player in school history to have more than 100 goals and 100 assists... Stony Brook closes out the 2009 season at Vermont on Saturday afternoon at 1 p.m.
Vermont (7-7, 2-3) suffered its second straight loss to a ranked opponent, dropping a 17-4 decision at New Hampshire ... Freshman Samantha Stern (Cherry Hills, N.J./Cherry Hill East) led the Catamounts with a pair of goals ... Classmate Olivia Hatfield (Alpharetta, Ga./Milton) made 14 stops in the UVM net ... Senior Kristen Millar (Whitby, Ontario/Sinclair Secondary) recorded an assist to keep her consecutive points streak alive and extended it to 61 straight games, the longest in the country ... She also picked up three draw controls against the Wildcats and will enter the week four shy of breaking the all-time mark in NCAA Division I women's lacrosse history for draw controls ... Millar's assist tied her own single-season school record of 26, which she achieved in both 2006 and last season ... She remains one goal shy of breaking the all-time mark at UVM ... Freshman Allison Pfohl (Niskayuna, N.Y./Niskayuna) is one goal shy of tying the rookie record at Vermont for most goals in a season ... She scored twice against Boston U and has 28 goals on the year ... Vermont closes out the regular season hosting Long Island University on Tuesday (April 21) at 4 p.m. and wraps up league play hosting Stony Brook on Saturday (April 25) at 1 p.m. ... Prior to the start of the Stony Brook contest UVM will honor its four seniors.