CAMBRIDGE, Mass.-- With plenty on the line last week, three players who each stepped up to lead their teams to wins earn weekly America East women's lacrosse awards.
Stony Brook junior Demmianne Cook (Nesconset, N.Y./Smithtown East) earns her third Player of the Week accolade this season after she paced the Seawolves to a victory to clinch the two seed for the upcoming conference championship. Boston U. sophomore goalkeeper Christina Sheridan (Ellicott City, Md./Our Lady of Good Counsel) also picks up her third weekly award with the Defensive Player of the Week nod, and University of New Hampshire freshman midfielder Laura Puccia (Fairport, N.Y./Fairport) helped the Wildcats to two wins last week en route to her second Rookie of the Week honor.
Cook put up her 11th hat trick of the season with a team-best six goals in Stony Brook's 16-5 win over Albany last week. In the league game, the junior also controlled five draws, caused a turnover and picked up three ground balls.
Cook leads Division I with 63 goals and paces America East with 3.94 goals per game.
Sheridan made a career-best 15 saves in Sunday's 11-6 win over Canisius. She registered a .714 save percentage and allowed just six goals. Sheridan made 10 saves in the second-half and stopped three Canisius free-position attempts.
Sheridan, who also collected two ground balls, ranks second in America East with 2.60 ground balls per game. She also ranks third with 7.73 saves per game this season.
Puccia had an eight-point week, including a four-goal effort in Saturday's 12-11 win against UMBC to keep UNH's playoff hopes alive. Her first goal against the Retrievers gave the Wildcats a 2-1 lead, an advantage they would not relinquish. Her final tally came with 51 seconds remaining to give UNH a 12-10 lead.
Puccia also finished with two goals, two assists, a ground ball and a draw control in a win against Columbia earlier in the week.
Entering the final week of the regular season, three teams have already clinched berths in the 2012 America East Women's Lacrosse Championship May 3 & 5 at Boston University's Nickerson Field. The Terriers will be the top seed and, with the win over Albany over the weekend, Stony Brook sealed up the two seed.
UMBC has finished the league slate with a 3-3 record and is guaranteed a spot, but will have to wait to see if it's as the three or the four seed. Albany and Vermont, both with 2-3 records, square-off on Saturday with the loser falling out of contention. The winner will also need UNH to lose to Stony Brook in order to earn the four seed, while UMBC would be the three seed in that scenario. Should the Wildcats defeat the Seawolves, UNH would own the three-way tiebreaker between UMBC and the Albany/Vermont winner to capture the three seed, and UMBC would fall to the four seed.
Team Notebooks:
Albany (9-5, 2-3 AE) dropped its senior day game against Stony Brook 16-5 at home... The Great Danes sit tied for fourth with both Vermont and New Hampshire for the final spot in the America East Tournament... Senior Amanda Pollock (Syracuse, N.Y./Liverpool) led the charge with three points, two goals and one assist in the losing effort. That was her sixth mult-point performance this season... Jess Antelmi (Bridgeport, N.Y./Chittenango) tallied two more points against Stony Brook, one goal and one assist. Antelmi now is the team leader in points with 44 (23 goals, 21 assists)... Albany will finish its 2012 schedule on the road against Vermont on Saturday, April 28 at 1 p.m.
Binghamton (3-11, 0-5 AE) lost a pair of road contests last week, coming up short against Siena 8-6 and falling to conference foe Vermont 12-7... Senior Lis Zuern (Cicero, N.Y./Cicero-North Syracuse) led the Bearcats with four goals and an assist during the week moving into second place all-time in program history in goals scored with 111... At Siena, the Bearcats trimmed a three-goal second-half deficit to one, but were unable to complete the comeback as the Saints made several key stops down the stretch... Six different Binghamton players entered the scoring column led by junior Kimberly McGeever (Northport, N.Y./Northport) with a goal and two assists... After a slow start in Vermont, scoring one first-half goal, the Bearcats pulled within two of the Catamounts early in the second half, but would not get any closer as the hosts responded to every Binghamton push... Zuern valiantly tried to bring Binghamton back with three goals in three minutes, but it wasn't enough at a rain-soaked Virtue Field... The Bearcats wrap up their season with a pair of home contests against No. 13/13 Cornell on Tue. April 21 at 4 p.m. then welcome Boston U. on Sat. April 28 at Noon for Senior Day.
Boston U. (10-5, 5-0 AE) celebrated Senior Day on Sunday as six seniors participated in their final regular-season home game... Sophomore goalkeeper Christina Sheridan (Ellicott City, Md./Our Lady of Good Counsel) made a career-high 15 saves against Canisius, including 10 in the second half. Her previous career-high was 12 at Notre Dame on March 15, 2011... Boston U. can clinch the regular-season title outright with a win at Binghamton on Saturday... The Terriers have not lost a road game since March 7 at Dartmouth... Boston U. has outscored its opponents 109-65 in the second half, including a 5-2 margin on Sunday against Canisius... Boston U. controlled all seven draws in the second half against Canisius and controlled 13 overall to just five for Canisius.
UMBC (7-8, 3-3 AE) extended its season-high winning streak to three with a 13-11 victory over American in the final home game for four seniors... One of those seniors, attacker Emily Coady (Westminster, Md./Westminster) scored her 100th career goal in that contest and has subsequently moved into 15th place on UMBC's all-time scoring list with 142 career points... Another senior, midfielder Alicia Krause, (Ellicott City, Md./Mount Hebron) recorded three assists in the win over the Eagles... Krause added four goals and a helper in the 12-11 loss at UNH on April 21 and has a career-topping 16 assists on the campaign... Starting defenders Jessica Harkey (Purcellville, Va./Loudoun Valley) and Lauren Mundell (Severna Park, Md./Severna Park) were also recognized before the game... Retriever freshman goalkeeper Anna Barnett (Midland, Texas/Midland) improved to 4-2 on the season turning away eight shots in 60 minutes of work... UMBC defeated American for the eighth consecutive time and took a 13-2 lead in the series... Krause now has 7 goals and 9 points in UMBC's last two outings vs. UNH... The Retrievers rallied from a 10-2 second-half deficit and got within one goal on three occasions, but are still winless (0-7) in Durham... UMBC is 0-4 in one-goal decisions this season and have lost three games by identical 12-11 scores... The Retrievers have scored and allowed 155 goals in 2012... UMBC completes the regular season by facing Johns Hopkins at Homewood Field on April 25.
UNH (5-9, 2-3 AE) went 2-0 last week with a 14-8 road win against Columbia and 12-11 Senior Day victory vs. UMBC… The Wildcats scored on their first nine shots at Columbia en route to building a 9-3 halftime lead and tallying their third-highest goal output of the season… The ‘Cats led 7-2 at the half against UMBC and the visitors never leveled the score despite pulling within one goal three times in the last 12 minutes of the game… Taylor Hurwitz (Holland, Pa./Council Rock South) recorded her first career win with an eight-save, six-ground ball effort at Columbia… Kate Gunts (Wilton, Conn./Wilton) improved to 20-8 lifetime with seven saves (eight goals allowed) vs. UMBC… Kate Keagins (Bay Shore, N.Y./Bay Shore) scored a season-high five goals at CU… Amber Casiano (South Windsor, Conn./South Windsor) recorded a career-high five draw controls at Columbia, then matched that vs. UMBC… Laura Puccia (Fairport, N.Y./Fairport) extended her goal-scoring streak to eight games with two tallies at CU and four vs. UMBC… Keagins has a 19-game point-scoring streak and 17-game goal streak… Freshman attack Kayleigh Hinkle (Glenelg, Md./Glenelg) recorded her first multiple-assist game with two at Columbia, then tallied two points (1g, 1a) vs. UMBC… Jenny Simpson (New Canaan, Conn./New Canaan; 14g, 5a), Keagins (15g, 3a) and Puccia (15g, 2a) were the top point producers at home this season… UNH scored on 6 of 7 free-position shots last week… The Wildcats are 5-1 when scoring 10+ goals and 4-0 when leading at halftime.
Stony Brook defeated Albany in its lone game of the week to improve to 12-4 overall and 4-1 in America East, both records approaching the program best marks originally set in 2007 when the team was 13-4 and 5-1... The Seawolves have won seven of their last eight games... The win solidified SBU's spot as the No. 2 seed in the upcoming America East Championship... Junior Demmianne Cook (Nesconset, N.Y.) continued her chase for the NCAA scoring title with a team-best six goals in the win. It was her 11th hat trick of the season and the fifth time she has scored six or more goals.She has a conference-best 63 goals this season... Junior Claire Petersen (Wantagh, N.Y.) is chasing the NCAA points title and added to her total with two goals and four assists for a six-point day. She has had 11 games of five points or more this season and now has 36 goals and 50 assists for the year. She is just six points shy of 400 for her career... Freshman Michelle Rubino (East Setauket, N.Y.) chipped in two goals and three assists while controlling four draws and causing two turnovers. She leads America East with 82 draw controls... Junior Hannah Perruccio (Rochester, N.Y.) stopped seven of 12 shots on goal to help the Seawolves hold an opponent to five goals or fewer for the sixth time this season...Perruccio, who made three of her seven saves on free position attempts, has now been in net for three of those games...Stony Brook will host New Hampshire on Senior Day Saturday.
Vermont (9-7, 2-3 AE) snapped a four-game losing streak with a 12-7 victory over Binghamton in the only game of the week for the Catamounts... Goalkeeper Laura Barber (Middlebury, Vt./Middlebury) came up with 10 saves, including a few key stops, to earn her 20th career victory. She is the fourth Catamount in the program's history to post 20 victories... UVM's senior class also picked up its 30th win in four years, setting a new school mark for wins by a four-year class... The seniors broke the mark of 29 wins held by the class of 2011 and 1993... Vermont improved to 5-2 on its new home Virtue Field, which was formally dedicated on Saturday... The Catamounts close out the regular season hosting Albany on Saturday (April 28) at 2 p.m... The winner will have the upper hand for a berth in the America East playoffs.