April 11, 2011

 

Patriot League Women's Lacrosse Weekly Release (4.11.11)

Center Valley, Pa. — Lehigh was idle on the women’s lacrosse League schedule, but the Mountain Hawks still made headlines.

In a non-League loss to Virginia Tech, senior midfielder Lauren Dykstra scored four goals to break the League’s all-time mark of 242. Dykstra now has 243 goals, and after scoring 11 last week, she was named the Offensive Player of the Week.

Idle Lehigh landed in a three-way tie for first Saturday after Navy upended then-undefeated Colgate to give all three squads a record of 3-1 in the League. No team has clinched a playoff spot — although, Bucknell has been eliminated — and the battle for the No. 1 seed may come down to the final weekend when Navy hosts Lehigh on CBS Sports Network.

American and Holy Cross also won League games over the weekend to remain in the hunt for a playoff spot. The Eagles’ Chiara Speziale was named the Midfield Player of the Week and Holy Cross goalkeeper Amy Martin was named the Defensive Player of the Week.

Lehigh’s Alexandra Fitzpatrick was named the Rookie of the Week.

American will host Navy in a midweek League contest at 4 p.m. Wednesday, while Lafayette and Colgate will face off in Hamilton, N.Y., and Lehigh will travel to Holy Cross Saturday. Both games are at 1 p.m.

Team Notebooks
AMERICAN The Eagles went 1-1 last week with a non-League 12-11 loss to George Mason in triple overtime Tuesday and a 10-9 win over Lafayette Saturday. American’s Chiara Speziale gave her team an 11-9 lead with 7:25 left, but George Mason battled back with two goals to tie it at 11 with 2:34 left, and after two scoreless overtime frames, George Mason scored with 51 seconds left to win it. Speziale, Bernadette Maher and Eliza Morgan each had two goals for the Eagles. In the Eagles’ third League win, Lauren Schoenberger scored three goals — all in the first half — as they built a 7-4 lead after 30 minutes. Lafayette cut it to one goal with 2:38 left, but American held on for the win. The Eagles will have a quick turnaround in the League when they host first-place Navy at 4 p.m. Wednesday. Both teams will be in search of their fourth League win, which will put them in good standing to make the tournament.

BUCKNELL The Bison dropped their fifth straight League game, falling 14-7 to Holy Cross Saturday. Ali Carey, Julia Braun and Madison Hurwitz all scored two goals for the Bison, who jumped out to a 5-3 lead. Holy Cross, however, scored 10 straight goals to take a 13-5 lead with 8:53 left. The Bison are idle on the League schedule and will host Manhattan at 4 p.m. Tuesday.

COLGATE The Raiders had a chance to remain undefeated in the Patriot League, but they couldn’t get past the defending champion Navy Midshipmen, falling 14-11 Saturday. Colgate’s Colleen Bubnack scored five goals, including the game’s first tally just 53 seconds in, but the lead didn’t last long. Navy pushed it out to 9-5 at halftime and never looked back. Three straight goals midway through the second made it 14-7, and Colgate rallied for four goals to cut it to 14-11 with 9:36 left, but that was it. Kate Bergstrom finished with two goals and two assists. The Raiders return home for a Patriot League contest against Lafayette. A win will eliminate the Leopards and possibly clinch a playoff spot depending on a few other contests. To earn the No. 1 seed, Colgate needs to win out and have Lehigh defeat Navy.

HOLY CROSS The Crusaders won their second straight League game to get to 2-2 with two games left. Holy Cross upended Bucknell 14-7 Saturday, using a stretch of 10 straight goals to turn a 5-3 deficit into a 13-5 lead. Maddie Carrellas scored three goals, and Kayla DiBari, Meg O’Leary, Taylor Zebrowski and Kat Sutton all scored two goals. Sutton, who improved her goal streak to 43 games, also had two assists. She now has 86 goals and 17 assists for 103 points in her career. Goalie Amy Martin made seven saves in the win. Holy Cross will host Harvard at 7 p.m. Wednesday and Lehigh at 1 p.m. Saturday.

LAFAYETTE The Leopards lost 10-9 to American in a League contest Saturday. Ana Drehwing and Addie Godfrey did all they could, scoring two goals and an assist each, but American held on over the final 2:38 to win it. Lafayette’s Kate Leto and Godfrey scored back-to-back goals less than 1:30 span to cut the Eagles lead to 10-9 with 2:38 left, but the Eagles defense clamped down. Lafayette led 3-2 midway through the first half, but American scored five of the next six goals to own a 7-4 halftime lead. The Leopards will host Columbia at 7 p.m. Wednesday in a non-League game and travel to Colgate for a 1 p.m. League game Saturday.

LEHIGH The Mountain Hawks went 1-1 in two non-League games last week, defeating Iona 14-9 on Wednesday and losing to Virginia Tech in a heartbreaker, 6-5 Saturday. Lauren Dykstra scored seven goals in the win over Iona and added four more against Virginia Tech Saturday to set the Patriot League’s all-time career goal mark with 243, passing former Lehigh standout Jill Altshuler (242 goals from 1993-96). Dykstra nearly had her 244th goal, which would have given the Mountain Hawks a 6-5 lead over the Hokies, but a protest of her stick led to an illegal stick call and the nullification of the goal. The Hokies took possession and scored with 1 second left to win it. The Mountain Hawks will travel to No. 20/15 Penn State for a 7 p.m. non-League game Tuesday. Lehigh also will travel to Holy Cross for a 1 p.m. League contest Saturday. The Mountain Hawks need two wins and a Colgate loss to win the No. 1 seed for the League Tournament.

NAVY The Midshipmen ended their two-game losing streak with a 14-11 win over Colgate Saturday. The Mids, who trailed 1-0 and 2-1 early, built a 14-7 lead and held on over the final 9:36 after the Raiders had cut it to 14-11. Katrina Nietsch had four goals, including the eventual game-winner, and Caitlin Mandrin Hill and Jasmine DePompeo each had three goals and an assist. Kathy Young also tallied a hat trick. Navy sophomore keeper Michelle Verbeeck made seven saves, including six in the first half. Navy will return to the field at 4 p.m. Wednesday for a League-game against American. The Mids can win the regular-season title with wins over American and Lehigh.

Patriot League Notebook

2011 Playoff Scenarios
(as of 4.11.11)

Navy can clinch a playoff berth with a win in over American Wednesday. 

Colgate can clinch a playoff berth with a win over Lafayette Saturday.

Lehigh can clinch a playoff berth with a win over Holy Cross Saturday. 

American can clinch a playoff berth with a win over Navy Wednesday.

Holy Cross cannot clinch this weekend, but can be eliminated with a loss coupled with a Navy win.

Lafayette cannot earn a playoff bid this weekend, but can be eliminated with a loss.

Bucknell has been eliminated.

The playoff field can be set if Navy, Colgate and Lehigh win, with American owning the tie-breaker over Holy Cross to earn the fourth spot.

Florida’s Kitty Cullen leads the NCAA in goals with 61, but the Patriot League has four players in the top 11.
Lehigh’s Lauren Dykstra is ranked second with 58 goals, and Navy’s Aimee Gennaro is ranked seventh with 42 goals. Gennaro’s teammate, Jasmine DePompeo, is 11th with 39 goals, and Colgate’s Colleen Bubnack is ninth with 41.

Four Patriot Leaguers are in the top 15 in assists, as well. Colgate’s Courtney Miller is fifth with 28 and DePompeo is seventh with 25.

Navy’s Caitlin Mandrin Hill and Lehigh’s Kelly Draper are tied for 10th with 24.

Lafayette’s Ana White is second in caused turnovers per game (2.58) and Lehigh’s Alexandra Fitzpatrick is second in save percentage (.522).

Patriot League streaks among best in NCAA
Lehigh senior Lauren Dykstra and Holy Cross junior Kat Sutton are making runs at history. Scoring 11 goals in two games last week, Dykstra improved her goal streak to 45 straight games. Sutton scored in a game last week to push her streak to 43.

The two streaks are the second and third longest active streaks in the NCAA. Grace Gavin, of Loyola of Maryland, owns the longest active streak with 53 games. The NCAA record for goals in consecutive games is 69, held by Denver’s Ali Flurry (from March 11, 2007, to May 2, 2010).

Dykstra has 243 career goals and 58 in 2011.

Sutton opened her collegiate career with four scoreless games, but she has scored in every game since. For her career, she has 86 goals. She scored 36 goals last season as a sophomore after netting 20 in her freshman year. With two goals last week, she has pushed her 2011 total to 30.

New Target
Lehigh midfielder Lauren Dykstra has scored 58 goals in 2011 and with her four-goal performance Saturday against Virginia Tech, she took over the Patriot League record for career goals with 243. She passed former Lehigh standout Jill Altshuler, who had 242 goals from 1993 to 1996.

With the record, Dykstra also pushed Altshuler out of the NCAA’s top 10. The senior from Mendham, N.J., now holds the spot and will look to climb the NCAA rankings. If she holds her League-best average of 4.46 goals per game over the final three regular-season games, she can climb as high as sixth on the NCAA’s all-time list. Fifth place is 16 goals away. The record for career goals is 289 (Gail Cummings, Temple, 1985-88).

Climbing the Hill
Navy senior captain Caitlin Mandrin Hill is tied for fourth all-time on the Patriot League’s career assist list. She has 86 career assists and 24 this season. She nine away from tying former Navy standout Erin Rawlick for third place. The record for assists is 134 (Madalyn Booth, Lafayette, 2005-08), which is a bit out of reach; however, second place is only 11 assists away.

Dykstra named to Tewaaraton Award watch list
Lehigh senior midfielder Lauren Dykstra was named to the 2011 Tewaaraton Award watch list. She is one of 48 Division I women’s lacrosse players to be named to the list.

The Tewaaraton Award is the pre-eminent award in lacrosse, awarded to the NCAA’s top men’s and women’s players annually by the Greater Washington Sports Alliance. The list will be narrowed down three times during the regular season until the 10 finalists are announced in May.

The winner will be announced June 2 at the Warner Theater in Washington, D.C. Formerly established in 2000 by the University Club in Washington, D.C., the Tewaaraton Award celebrates one of the six tribal nations of the Iroquois Confederacy: the Mohawk, Cayuga, Oneida, Onondaga, Seneca and the Tuscarora. 2011 is the Year of the Tuscarora.

2011 Patriot League Championship to be televised on CBS Sports Network
CBS Sports Network will televise the Patriot League Women’s Lacrosse championship game for the first time. The women’s championship game is slated for at 3 p.m. Saturday, April 30.

CBS Sports Network televised Navy’s win over Colgate, 14-11, Saturday, and the Mids will be back on the network at 3 p.m. Saturday, April 23, when they face Lehigh in a rematch of last season’s Patriot League Championship game. The rematch will take place at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium.

Timchal stands atop all-time NCAA lacrosse win list
After posting a 17-4 record in her 28th season as a Division I women’s lacrosse coach, Cindy Timchal has taken over sole possession of the NCAA all-time wins list. Timchal entered the 2010 season tied with Pat Genovese of William Smith, but with 389 wins, she stands alone.

Cindy Timchal became the first coach in NCAA history to lead three programs to the NCAA Tournament. Last spring marked her NCAA-best 22nd national tournament appearance. Her 389 wins are the most by any NCAA lacrosse coach, men’s or women’s, spanning all three divisions.

Only two Division I lacrosse programs have qualified for the NCAA Tournament faster than the three years it has taken Navy. A Timchal-led Northwestern squad in 1983 and North Carolina in 1997 each earned berths in their respective program’s second varsity season.

The Navy women’s team became just the second women’s team in any sport at the Naval Academy to earn a Division I NCAA Tournament bid.

Patriot League Women's Lacrosse Weekly Awards
OFFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK
LAUREN DYKSTRA, LEHIGH Sr., Midfielder, Mendham, N.J.
Dykstra scored just enough goals to break the Patriot League's all-time career goals record, pushing her total to 243 with four goals Saturday against Virginia Tech. She totaled 11 goals in two games last week and had one assist. She also moved into fourth place on the all-time points list with 286. Dykstra also had four groundballs, four draw controls and a caused turnover last week.

MIDFIELD PLAYER OF THE WEEK
CHIARA SPEZIALE, AMERICAN So., Midfielder, West Islip, N.Y.
Speziale scored three goals, had seven groundballs, three draw controls and one caused turnover in two games last week. She score twice in the Eagles' 12-11 loss to George Mason and she picked up five groundballs in their 10-9 win over Lafayette.

DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK
AMY MARTIN, HOLY CROSS Sr., Goalkeeper, Bloomfield, Mich. 
Martin recorded seven saves in a 14-7 win over Bucknell Saturday to give the Crusaders their second straight League win. She has made 27 saves in her last three games, and has 594 career saves, which ranks ninth in Patriot League history.

ROOKIE OF THE WEEK
ALEXANDRA FITZPATRICK, LEHIGH Fr., Goalkeeper, Yorktown Heights, N.Y. 
Fitzpatrick won her second straight Rookie of the Week award, going 1-1 in goal for the Mountain Hawks last week. She made 19 saves in two games, posting a .559 save percentage. She held Virginia Tech, a team that averages 13 goals per game, to six goals Saturday.

HONORABLE MENTIONS
LAUREN SCHOENBERGER, AMERICAN Jr., Attack, Penfield, N.Y. 
Schoenberger scored four goals and had two assists in two games for the Eagles. She netted a hat trick in their 10-9 League win over Lafayette Saturday.

COLLEEN BUBNACK, COLGATE Sr., Midfielder, Syracuse, N.Y. 
Bubnack scored five goals in a 14-11 League loss to Navy Saturday. She also had a groundball and a draw control.

MADDIE CARRELLAS, HOLY CROSS So., Midfielder, Middletown, R.I. 
Carrellas scored three goals, had three groundballs and caused two turnovers in the Crusaders' 14-7 win over Bucknell Saturday.

KATRINA NIETSCH, NAVY Sr., Midfielder, New Canaan, Conn.
Nietsch scored four goals, including the game-winner, to lead the Mids past Colgate 14-11 Saturday. Nietsch also had two draw controls and a groundball.

JASMINE DePOMPEO, NAVY So., Attack, Sayville, N.Y.
DePompeo scored three goals and had an assist in the Mids' 14-11 win over Colgate Saturday. She also had a groundball and a caused turnover.