CAMBRIDGE, Mass.-- The first week of the conference women's lacrosse season is in the books and three teams start 1-0 thanks in large part to this week's America East award winners. Boston U. junior attacker Danielle Etrasco (Massapequa, N.Y./Massapequa), the reigning Player of the Year, earns her first Player of the Week honors of the season. A pair of freshmen in UMBC goalkeeper Anna Barnett (Midland, Texas/Midland) and University of New Hampshire midfielder Laura Puccia (Fairport, N.Y./Fairport) take home the Defensive Player and Rookie of the Week awards, respectively.
Etrasco totaled eight points on six goals and two assists, and 13 draw controls in two Terrier wins last week. The junior scored five goals in the conference opener against Vermont, including four in the second half. She also won seven draws in the game, controlling the final draw of the game to clinch the 16-15 victory, and tallied two ground balls and a caused turnover. Etrasco notched three points and six draw controls in a win against Yale earlier in the week.
In her first collegiate start, Barnett led UMBC to an 8-5 victory over 13th-ranked Albany in the America East opener. In the upset, Barnett made a team season-high nine saves on 14 shots on goal for an outstanding .643 save percentage. She limited Albany to five goals and stopped four of five free position attempts, including a pair over the final 3:31 of the game. Barnett also collected two ground balls and a caused turnover.
Puccia recorded a career day to help the Wildcats to their first conference win of the season. The rookie midfielder notched three goals and an assist, along with three draw controls, a ground ball and a caused turnover in a 16-9 victory over Binghamton. Puccia scored UNH's fifth goal and set up the next tally during a game-defining 6-0 run. She then scored back-to-back goals in the second half to swing momentum back in UNH's favor.
Team Notebooks:
Albany (6-3, 0-1 AE) dropped its conference opener to UMBC 8-5 on Saturday, March 24... The Great Danes have lost its last two and look to finish their non-conference schedule with a win against Stanford on Friday, March 30... Jess Antelmi (Bridgeport, N.Y./Chittenango) led the Great Danes with three points (2 goals, 1 assist) against UMBC on Saturday. Antelmi has now recorded three points or more in a game seven times this season and in each of the last six games... Rachel Burek (Rensselaer, N.Y./ Columbia) tallied a multi-goal game (2), as well, against UMBC. Burek has recorded a goal in all nine games this season... Anna Berman (Garnerville, N.Y./North Rockland) tied her career high in saves against UMBC with nine. Berman has now tallied 45 saves on the season and accrued a .346 saves percentage... Albany will have its longest stretch at home with three games, beginning with Stanford on Friday, March 30.
Binghamton (3-5, 0-0 AE) split a pair of games last week defeating Colgate 16-11 before dropping its America East opener at New Hampshire 16-9... Senior Lis Zuern (Cicero, N.Y./Cicero-North Syracuse) led the Bearcats to a victory with her second seven-point outing of the season, netting five goals and handing out two assists... Binghamton held a two-goal halftime lead that quickly disappeared early in the second half, but the Bearcats went on a 6-0 run to take control of the game... Juniors Kimberly McGeever (Northport, NY/Northport) and Katherine Hunsberger (Cortland, N.Y./Cortland) added a pair of hat tricks... At New Hampshire, Binghamton went scoreless for over 20 minutes allowing the hosts to take 7-2 halftime lead... The Wildcats answered several pushes by the Bearcats in the second half not allowing Binghamton any closer than four... Hunsberger found the back of the net three times for her second hat trick in as many games... Binghamton hosts Stony Brook next Saturday, March 31 at noon.
Boston U. (5-4, 1-0 AE) has now won four games in a row...Mallory Collins and Danielle Etrasco each extended her respective goal-scoring streak to nine games...The 16 goals against Vermont matched a season-best set against George Mason on March 3... Boston U. has now won 17 straight games against Vermont... Catie Tilton had seven assists against Vermont, including six in the first half. Tilton factored in seven of the Terriers' first eight goals against Vermont...Senior Annie Stookesberry scored the game-winner against Vermont and collected nine total ground balls and nine draw controls during the week... Etrasco led the Terriers with 13 draw controls.
Sophomore midfielder Kristen Bilney (Ellicott City, Md./Mount Hebron) scored a career-high three goals and freshman goalkeeper Anna Barnett (Midland, Texas/Midland) made nine stops in her first career start as UMBC (4-5, 1-0 AE) upset 13th-ranked Albany 8-5 in the America East Conference opener at rain-soaked UMBC Stadium... Bilney gave UMBC a 5-4 lead at the 12:57 mark of the half and increased the Retriever advantage to 6-4 by converting a free position shot 100 seconds later... Retriever junior midfielder and leading scorer Lindsay Cox (High Bridge, N.J.) extended the margin to 7-4 with a dodge from up top and goal at the 16:53 mark and finalized the scoring on an unassisted tally with 10:33 to play... Barnett turned aside two free position attempts in the final 3:31 to preserve the victory and square the all-time series at 6-6... The last five regular season clashes have all been decided by three goals or fewer... Cox finished with two goals and one assist... UMBC outshot the Great Danes 25-17 and controlled nine of 15 draws... The Retrievers only committed seven turnovers in the contest... The nine saves by Barnett is a season high for UMBC goalkeepers. Barnett now has a save percentage of 55.9 and a 7.02 goals against average in 222 minutes of action... Bilney leads Retriever regulars with 91.3 shots on goal percentage and 52.2 shot percentage and is one of the conference leaders in draw controls with 32... UMBC faces Boston University at UMBC Stadium on Sat., March 31.
UNH (2-5, 1-0 AE) opened America East conference play with a 16-9 victory against Binghamton on March 24… The Wildcats matched their season high of 37 shots, including 21 in the first half, and six players recorded multiple points against the Bearcats… UNH’s 7-0 run overlapping the first and second halves for a span of nearly 18 minutes was the longest stretch of consecutive goals by the ‘Cats this season… Jenny Simpson (New Canaan, Conn./New Canaan) equaled her personal bests in both assists (two) and points (six) to garner the team’s America East Player of the Game honor… Amber Casiano (South Windsor, Conn./South Windsor) recorded her 50th career point with the second of her two points; she has 38 goals and 12 assists. Casiano has scored a goal each of the last five games and in six of seven games this season… Kate Keagins (Bay Shore, N.Y.) scored the 75th goal of her career with the first of her three tallies; she extended her goal-scoring streak to 10 games and point streak to 12. Keagins leads the team in ground balls, draw controls, caused turnovers and shots; she is tied atop the leaderboard (with Simpson) in both goals and points… Laura Puccia (Fairport, N.Y./Fairport) recorded personal bests in both goals (three) and points (four), as did fellow freshman Kayleigh Hinkle (Glenelg, Md./Glenelg) with two goals and three points… Kate Gunts (Wilton, Conn./Wilton) stopped 4 of 5 free-positions shots and made nine saves to hold Binghamton to a season-low nine goals.
Stony Brook (6-3, 0-0 AE) split a pair of games last week, losing at No. 4 Maryland before snapping a three-game losing streak with a convincing 17-5 win over Marist at home... The loss at Maryland ended a four-game stretch of playing nationally ranked opponents, including the last three games against top-five teams... Stony Brook broke out of an offensive slump with 17 goals against Marist after only averaging 6.3 goals over its previous three games... The Seawolves still rank second in America East in scoring at 13.2 goals per game... Junior Claire Petersen (Wantagh, N.Y.) led all SBU players last week with 12 points on two goals and 10 assists. She posted a goal and four assists at Maryland and then a goal and six assists vs. Marist...Petersen now has 14 goals and 26 assists for 40 points. Her 26 assists already rank her sixth in SBU single-season history. She leads all America East players in assists per game (3.71) and points per game (5.71)... Junior Demmianne Cook (Nesconset, N.Y.) scored four goals vs. Marist and now has a conference-leading 33 goals and 3.67 goals per game and is only 15 goals away from breaking Stony Brook's all-time single-season record...Freshman Amber Kupres (Ronkonkoma, N.Y.) enjoyed an outstanding week with seven goals, four ground balls and four caused turnovers. She posted hat tricks in both games with three goals at Maryland and a career-high four vs. Marist...Stony Brook plays at Iona Tuesday before opening conference play at Binghamton on Saturday.
Vermont (6-3, 0-1 AE) went 1-1 on the week... The Catamounts posted an 18-9 win at Quinnipiac... Sophomore Sydney Mas (Bedford, N.Y./St. George's (R.I.)) scored a team-high five goals to lead UVM... Goalkeeper Laura Barber (Middlebury, Vt./Middlebury) added 10 saves in the net and caused three turnovers in the game... UVM wrapped up a four-game road swing at Boston U in the league opener... The Catamounts fell 16-15 at Nickerson Field... Mas tallied five points on four goals and an assist and Barber posted 10 stops in net... Allison Pfohl (Niskayuna, N.Y./Niskayuna) picked up a goal and an assist against Boston U. and is one point shy of the 100-career point milestone… Mas also inched closer to the 100-point milestone and is two points shy of the mark… Adison Rounds (Centennial, Colo./Arapahoe) is seven draw controls away from 100 for her career… Barber surpassed 300 career saves against the Terriers... UVM returns home to host UC Davis on Thursday (March 29) at 3 p.m. and also faces UNH on Saturday (March 31) at 2 p.m. at Virtue Field.