Stanford Captures Second-Straight #AEFH Championship; Hosts Miami (OH) in NCAA Play-In
LOWELL, Mass. — For the second-straight year, Stanford is the America East field hockey champion. The Cardinal scored four first half goals to down New Hampshire in the #AEFH championship game Sunday at UMass Lowell’s Wicked Blue Turf.
Stanford (13-7), the top seed from the West, scored three times in the game’s first 19 minutes and never trailed. Corinne Zanolli, the America East Rookie of the Year, opened the scoring 4:08 in and Marissa Cicione made it 2-0 Cardinal just 4:48 later. Frances Carstens put the 18th-ranked Cardinal up 3-0 in the 19th minute and Jessica Welch made it 4-0 with just under six minutes left in the half. Kelsey Bing and Maddie Belin each made five saves in the cage for Stanford.
Ashley Mendonca scored for New Hampshire (9-12), which was making its 11th America East championship game appearance all-time.
With the win, Stanford earned the conference’s automatic bid to the NCAA Field Hockey Championship and will host Miami (OH) in a play-in contest on Wednesday. The winner of that contest faced #2 seed Duke on Saturday. This will be the Cardinal’s seventh NCAA appearance in eight seasons under Tara Danielson.
Stanford’s Sarah Helgeson earned the championship’s Most Outstanding Player award. She was joined on the All-Championship team by Zanolli, Bing and Mendonca as well as Stanford’s Katie Keyser, UNH’s Gianna Bensaia and Aggie Sutherland, Albany’s Kelsey Briddell and Frederike Helmke, Pacific’s Savannah Burns and Kriekie van Wyk, Maine’s Libby Riedl, California’s Megan Rodgers, UMass Lowell’s Christa Doiron and UC Davis’ Nicola Prebble.
New Hampshire’s Brittany Marshall earned the 2017 America East Field Hockey Elite 18 award, given to the student-athlete competing in the championship game with the highest GPA. The senior has a 3.87 GPA majoring in mechanical engineering.
Relive the tournament by visiting Championship Central for box scores, highlights and recaps following each round in addition to team information, tournament history and more.
2017 America East Field Hockey Championship
At UMass Lowell; Lowell, Mass.
All Times Eastern
Quarterfinals - Thursday, Nov. 2
Game 1 – #E1 Albany 5, #W4 UC Davis 0
Game 2 – #W1 Stanford 5, #E4 UMass Lowell 1
Quarterfinals – Friday, Nov. 3
Game 3 – #E3 New Hampshire 3, #W2 California 2 (OT)
Game 4 – #W3 Pacific 3, #E2 Maine 2
Semifinals – Saturday, Nov. 4
Game 5 – #E3 New Hampshire 2, #E1 Albany 1 (OT)
Game 6 – #W1 Stanford 3, #W3 Pacific 2 (OT)
Final – Sunday, Nov. 5
Game 7 – #W1 Stanford 4, #E3 New Hampshire 1
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