CAMBRIDGE, Mass.-- The Stony Brook women's lacrosse team's early success on the field has translated to three weekly award winners as named by the America East Conference office, the first awards of the 2012 season.
Stony Brook junior Demmianne Cook (Nesconset, N.Y./Smithtown East) captures the Player of the Week honor, while teammate Melissa Rotante (Norwalk, Conn./Brien McMahon) is the recipient of the Defender of the Week award. Freshman midfielder Michelle Rubino (East Setauke, N.Y./Comsewogue) picks up the season's first Rookie of the Week nod.
Cook averaged 4.33 goals over three Stony Brook wins in her Seawolves debut. She finished the three games with 13 goals, 15 points, eight draw controls, seven ground balls and a caused turnover. In the season opener, the junior scored six goals while recording four ground balls and three draw controls. Cook recorded five points against Manhattan before tallying four goals against Central Connecticut State.
Rotante anchored the Seawolves' defense which averaged just six goals allowed over the first three games of the season. She also grabbed six ground balls and forced two turnovers. Rotante's caused turnover against Manhattan led to a Stony Brook free-position goal. She played strong man-to-man defense as well, and only committed one foul. The three goals allowed to Manhattan tied for the fewest in Stony Brook history.
Rubino finished her first three games in a Stony Brook uniform with seven goals, nine points, 26 draw controls, seven ground balls and three caused turnovers. She notched five points in her first collegiate game against Colgate. As an encore, Rubino set the Seawolves record for single-game draw controls with 12 against Manhattan. She controlled 11 more draws against Central Connecticut State.
Team Notebooks:
No. 16 Albany (1-0) began the 2012 campaign at home this past Saturday with the victory over Niagara. Producing 19 total goals, Albany had many different players find the back of the net, including six goals from Tewaaraton Watch List player, Ariana Parker (Port Ewen, N.Y./Kingston). Three freshmen made a lasting first impression by producing six goals and four assists that afternoon. Those first-year scorers included Maureen Keggins (Watertown, N.Y./Watertown) who banked in two goals and four assists, while Nichole Eamer (Watertown, N.Y./General Brown) tallied three goals and Rachel Bowles (Cicero, N.Y./Cicero-North Syracuse) converted once. Jess Antelmi (Bridgeport, N.Y./Chittenango), Allie Phelan (Clarksville, N.Y./Bethlehem Central), and Mel Rorie (Lansdale, Pa./North Penn) each tallied two goals for Albany. The Great Danes led in shots (32-17), groundballs (11-9), and draw controls (17-13) en route to the 19-9 victory. The Great Danes will spend the next five games on the road, including a visit to Chapel Hill, N.C. Friday, February 24 with a contest featuring No. 3 North Carolina drawing off at 5 p.m.
Senior Lis Zuern, a 50-point scorer last year, is back for Binghamton (0-0) in 2012. Zuern notched 35 goals and set up 15 others to lead the Bearcats in points a year ago, however Binghamton’s next returning scorer put up just 14 points, so the Bearcats will have to find another offensive threat. On defense, senior Lauren Lukefahr is a second-team all-conference honoree who finished third on the team in ground balls (25), and second in draw controls (30) and caused turnovers (18).
A young Boston U. (0-0) team fell short of the program’s seventh-straight America East Championship last year, but brings back a lot of experience now for the 2012 season. Junior attacker Danielle Etrasco earned America East Co-Player of the Year honors as a sophomore after finding the back of the net 57 times and finishing with 65 points. Etrasco, recently named to the US National Senior Team, also led the team with 41 draw controls. The Terriers’ next two goal-scorers from last year in seniors Molly Swain (29g, 6a) and Hannah Frey (28g, 4a) will also provide Boston U. with lots of fire power, while classmate Catie Tilton will likely set up the attackers after registering 23 assists last year.
UMBC (0-1) had a tough challenge in its opener, taking on No. 4 Florida, a squad which came in at 1-1... The Retrievers got on the board first, but UF scored the next seven goals en route to an 18-6 victory... Senior attack Emily Coady (Westminster, Md./Westminster) led the Retrievers with three goals, while freshman attack Abby Wilson (Bel Air, Md./Fallston) scored two goals and added an assist in her Retriever debut... Coady now has 81 career goals... Leading returning scorer Alicia Krause (Ellicott City, Md./Mount Hebron) was disqualified after picking up her second yellow card early in the second half... Draw controls were even in the game at 13-all... Head Coach Kelly Berger was recently named to the U.S. women’s national senior team roster for the North American Challenge Cup, to be held July 13-15, 2012, in Oshawa, Canada, host of the 2013 Federation of International Lacrosse (FIL) World Cup... UMBC's next outing is at George Mason on Feb. 25.
UNH (0-0) returns 16 letterwinners, including 10 starters, from last year's team. That includes four of the top five leaders in goals, assists and points as well as every second in goal… The 2012 squad is led by senior captains Ilana Cohen (Andover, Mass./Andover), Kate Keagins (Bay Shore, N.Y./Bay Shore) and junior captains Chelsea Cyester (Parker, Colo./Chaparral) and Casey Doyle (Ivyland, Pa./Council Rock North)… Keagins led last year’s team in assists, points, ground balls, caused turnovers and points… Cohen ranked second in assists as well as third in both goals and points… In goal, Kathleen O’Keefe (Chatham, N.J./Chatham) had 10 starts a year ago and Kate Gunts (Wilton, Conn./Wilton) started seven games… The 2012 roster features eight newcomers, including sophomore transfer Emma Kriss (Rockville Centre, N.Y./South Side/Old Dominion)… UNH has won each of its last three season openers… The ‘Cats have an 0-4 record, including 0-1 at home, in season openers against Dartmouth… Dartmouth won the most recent meeting in a season opener, 10-5, at Memorial Field in 2004… UNH has a 20-11 record in home openers with a 1-3 mark against the Big Green, including that game in ’04… UNH plays five teams ranked in the IWLCA Preseason Poll.
Stony Brook is 3-0 to start the season for the third time in its program history and first time since the 2007 season...The average margin of victory in the three games was by 10.7 goals... The 19-3 win over Manhattan matched SBU's largest margin of victory and fewest goals allowed in a game, both originally set in a 19-3 win over Siena in 2006... Including his time at Adelphi, head coach Joe Spallina has now won 29 consecutive matches, dating back to the 2010 season. He is 76-2 in his career as a collegiate head coach... Numerous program records were either matched or broken in the first three games...Junior Demmianne Cook (Nesconset, N.Y.) scored six goals vs. Colgate, one shy of the SBU single-game record. She had 13 goals in three games... Freshman Michelle Rubino (East Setauket, N.Y.) tied the SBU record for most points in a Seawolves freshman debut with five vs. Colgate. She also broke the program record for single-game draw controls with 12 vs. Manhattan... Junior Claire Petersen (Wantagh, N.Y.) had a huge Seawolves debut by breaking the single-game record for assists with seven and tying the points record with nine vs. Central Connecticut State... The defense, led by junior Melissa Rotante (Norwalk, Conn.) allowed only an average of six goals in the three games, including holding Manhattan to just three... The Seawolves hit the road for the first time, traveling to Monmouth on Sunday.
Vermont (0-0) opens the 2012 campaign on Friday (Feb. 24) when it hosts Colgate at 3 p.m... The women's lacrosse team has the privilege of playing the first-ever game on UVM's brand new Virtue Field, which was completed in November... The Catamounts were picked to finish sixth in the America East Preseason Poll... Vermont, which finished 2011 with an 8-9 mark and went 2-4 in America East, returns 23 letterwinners and 78 percent of their offense, including the team's top two scorers in sophomore Sydney Mas and senior Samantha Stern... Mas, the 2011 America East Rookie of the Year, set a new conference freshman record with 55 goals. She finished the season with 63 points and collected 22 ground balls and 54 draw controls to earn first team all-conference honors... Stern was the America East Fans' Choice Player of the Year last season and totaled 28 points for the Catamounts.