CAMBRIDGE, Mass.-- With a week that featured four overtime games, including three on Sunday alone, it is only fitting that the America East weekly field hockey award winners played big roles in contests that went the extra session. University of Maine senior forward Kelly Newton (Vancouver, British Columbia) notched an overtime gamewinner for the second time in as many games to earn the Player of the Week distinction, while Boston University freshman goalkeeper Valentina Cerda (Santiago, Chile) helped send her Terriers to overtime against a top ten opponent to capture her second straight America East Rookie of the Week award. Both honors recognize the play for the period ending October 2.
Newton improved upon her record-setting career with two goals, including an overtime gamewinner, to net Maine an important conference-opening victory over Albany on Saturday. The senior executed a high tip-in in the first half to give the Black Bears a 2-0 lead. In the extra session, Newton once again tipped in a loose ball to extend Maine's win streak to 11 games.
Newton, the program's all-time leading scorer, now has 38 points this season on 10 goals and 18 assists and is tied for the league lead with 3.17 points per game.
Cerda stopped 10 of 11 shots she faced over the weekend to raise her nation-leading save percentage to .860. In the conference opener against Vermont, Cerda made two saves in a 1-0 triumph, her first collegiate shutout. On Sunday, her goalkeeping allowed the Terriers to take No. 9 Duke to overtime, as she recorded eight saves in a 1-0 overtime loss to the Blue Devils.
Cerda continues to pace America East goalkeepers in both save percentage and goals-against average (0.90 GAA).
Team Notebooks:
No. 17 University at Albany (8-4 overall, 0-1 America East) began conference play at No. 15 University of Maine with a 3-4 overtime loss. The Great Danes were down 0-2 starting the second half when senior leader Christina Patrick (Reading, Pa./Reading Catholic) scored two goals in a four-minute span to tie the game. Freshmen Amy Nicklin (Stockport, England/Aquinas) and Chloe Pachuilo (Reinholds, Pa./Conrad Weiser) each tallied an assist on Patrick’s goals. Pachuilo registered her first collegiate point with the assist... The Great Danes would come from behind again late in the second stanza with an unassisted goal from Daphne Voormolen (Rotterdam, Netherlands/Erasmiaans Gymnasium) which forced the overtime frame, her fifth goal on the season... Albany finishes its six-game road trip with a game against No. 5 Syracuse before beginning a four-game homestand.
No. 18 Boston University (6-5, 1-0 AE) earned a split for the third straight weekend, posting a 1-0 victory over Vermont on Saturday before dropping a hard-fought 1-0 contest to No. 9 Duke in overtime on Sunday... Junior Nicole van Oosterom (Lower Hutt, New Zealand/Chilton Saint James School) provided the goal on Saturday on a corner off a direct insert from sophomore Kat Spring (Concord, Mass./Lawrence Academy) in the 44th minute... Spring leads the Terriers in assists with four and van Oosterom now has four goals in three career games against the Catamounts... Freshman Valentina Cerda (Santiago, Chile/Deutsche Schule Santiago) made two saves in earning her first career shutout... Sophomore Dana Centofanti (Waltham, Mass./Waltham) recorded a defensive save in the first half against UVM... Cerda kept the Terriers competitive with the Blue Devils on Sunday, stopping the first eight shots she faced before the visitors struck in overtime. Cerda raised her save percentage to .860 - a mark that continues to lead the nation... Boston U. will return to action on Friday (Oct. 7) when it visits Dartmouth for a 3 p.m. contest... The Terriers will continue conference play on Sunday (Oct. 9) when they travel to face No. 15 Maine.
Fairfield (8-3, 0-1 AE) played its first America East matchup against New Hampshire on Friday (9/30) before returning to its home field on Sunday for its Play for the Cure event and game against Lock Haven University (10/2)… Freshman defender Felicitas Heinen scored the game-winning goal in Fairfield’s 2-1 overtime victory over Lock Haven University. It was her second gamewinner of the season… Heinen played in both games this past week against New Hampshire and Lock Haven… Marit Westenberg scored the other goal for the Stags this week which tied up the Lock Haven game one a piece in the second half… Westenberg also owned the two shots on goal by Fairfield in the New Hampshire game… Both Shealyn Testa and Leah Furey earned assists on the week… The Stags outshot the Lady Eagles, 14-8, on Sunday… Maddy Sposito had six saves this week giving her a total of 25 saves so far this season… In the game against Lock Haven, the Stags did not allow any shots on goal in the second half… The Stags return to play on Oct. 8 when they travel up to the University at Albany for a game at 4 p.m… The following day, the Stags will face Brown University at 2 p.m. back on their home field.
No. 15 Maine (11-1, 1-0 AE) picked up its first conference win of the season with a 4-3 overtime victory over #17 Albany... The win stretches Maine's winning streak to 11 straight... Kelly Newton (Vancouver, British Columbia) tallied a pair of goals in the win including the gamewinner 2:53 into overtime. For Newton, it was the 19th straight game in which she tallied at least one point and her second straight overtime gamewinner as she helped Maine defeat Quinnipiac in overtime last weekend... Jocelyn Mitchell (Kanata, Ontario) also tallied a pair of goals in the win. Her first goal, just 58 seconds into the contest, gave her 100 points in her career. Mitchell joins Newton and Stephanie Gardiner (Vancouver, British Columbia) as current 100 point scorers for the Black Bears... The win over Albany was the first for Maine in five years. Maine last defeated the Great Danes on Oct. 2, 2005 by a score of 3-2... Brittany Fleck (Vancouver, British Columbia) made three saves in the cage for Maine as she runs her personal winning streak to six games... The Black Bears, who currently lead the nation in goals per game at 5.4, have scored at least four goals in nine of their 12 contests... The Black Bears have scored 65 goals thus far, just seven goals short of the all-time record of 72 goals in a season... The Black Bears return to action on Sunday, Oct. 9 when they continue conference play with a 3 p.m. matchup with #18 Boston University before hosting non-conference foe Holy Cross on Monday, Oct. 10 at 12 p.m.
No. 10 UNH (10-2, 1-0 AE) opened America East conference play with a 2-0 win against Fairfield and then recorded its 10th win of the season with a 5-3 victory at Michigan State… UNH has won eight consecutive conference games dating back to October 2009; the Wildcats have outscored those league foes, 25-7… The ‘Cats went 7-2 in September to mark the highest win total in that month since the 2002 squad went 7-3… Hayley Rausch (Severna Park, Md./Severna Park) extended her point-scoring streak to 12 games with two assists vs. Fairfield and a goal at MSU… With 16 goals and 38 points, Rausch is already on the program’s top-10 single-season efforts at #9 in goals and #6 in points… Emma Erler (New Hampton, N.H./Newfound Regional) has already more than doubled her previous two-year point total (six) with 14 this season… Katherine Nagengast (Westborough, Mass./Westborough) has a 0.24 GAA and .909 save percentage in five home games… The Wildcats limited Fairfield to four shots to mark the fourth time this season UNH has held the opposition to less than five shots… UNH is 5-0 at home in 2011; the ‘Cats have outscored the opposition 18-1 with a 90-23 shot advantage in those five games… UNH reached double-digit victories for the third consecutive year; this is the fastest the Wildcats attained their 10th win since the 1989 team also started 10-2… UNH has scored 5+ goals six times this season; only the 1978 squad had accomplished that feat.
Vermont (6-6, 0-1 AE) had a busy week, going 1-2 in three games played… The Catamounts opened the week with a 4-3 victory at home over Dartmouth behind an Emily Bastiaanse (Granby, Conn./Granby Memorial) goal with 54 seconds remaining… Sophomore Colleen Slaughter (Ocean City, N.J./Ocean City) recorded her second two-goal game of the year, while sophomore Sally Snickenberger (Wellesley, Mass./Wellesley) added her second tally of the season… Sophomore Stephanie Zygmunt (Wayne, N.J./Wayne Hills) had the first of three straight games with double-digit saves, as she made 11 in the contest… UVM has won four straight games at home and has outscored its opponents 14-5 over that span… With its sixth victory of the season, UVM passed its win total from last year… The Cats followed that up with a 1-0 loss to No. 18 Boston U. in their America East opener on Saturday. It marked only the second time this season that Vermont had been shut out… UVM suffered its second consecutive loss on Sunday when it dropped a 2-1 decision at Harvard in overtime… Junior Taylor Silvestro (Walpole, Mass./Walpole) scored the Cats’ only goal, giving them a 1-0 lead, but the Crimson tallied the final two of the contest… Zygmunt added 13 saves in the loss, giving her 38 in three games for the week… Vermont returns to action on Friday when it hosts New Hampshire in league play starting at 3 p.m.