Sept. 26, 2011
CENTER VALLEY, Pa. — The eight teams will start the most crucial stretch of the regular season when Patriot League play begins Saturday. League teams have acquitted themselves well during non-League play, posting a 36-35-9 record during the first six weeks of the season, with the eight schools combining for winning seasons against foes from eight other conferences.
Patriot League Women's Soccer Release - 9.26.11 
Sunday was an exceptionally strong day for League squads, with the six teams combining for a 4-1-1 mark on the day. Three of the victories and the lone draw came against opponents from the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, with Army, Colgate and Lafayette accounting for the wins and Holy Cross earning the tie.
Colgate’s offense continued rolling during last week’s 3-0-0 showing. The Raiders totaled seven goals in victories over Dartmouth and Canisius at home and a road win at St. Bonaventure. Two players earned weekly honors, with Maddie Malone being named the BRINE Offensive Player of the Week after a five-point showing and Caroline Brawner nabbing her first BRINE Rookie of the Week nod.
Army bounced back from a 2-1 loss at home to Delaware a week ago Sunday with a pair of 1-0 shutouts against Howard and Marist, respectively. Senior Monica Lee earned BRINE Goalkeeper of the Week honors following those two efforts. She now has eight clean sheets on the season and 15 for her career.
After dropping two straight, Lafayette responded by posting a 1-0-1 effort last week. Each of the Leopards’ five wins on the season have been 1-0 affairs, with Sunday’s win over Manhattan being the most recent example. Junior goalkeeper Lauren Smedley has 17 career shutouts to her credit, putting her just two shy of the League’s all-time top 10.
There are two non-League contests schedule before League showdowns begin Saturday. American tries to bounce back from Saturday’s loss to visiting Richmond when it hosts D.C.-rival George Washington at 4 p.m. Teams are idle Tuesday before Lafayette returns to the pitch Wednesday for a 7 p.m. matchup at home against Ivy foe Cornell. The Ivy League is one of the eight conferences the Patriot League has gotten the better of so far in 2011, holding a 3-0-1 advantage in the four head-to-head showdowns. The Leopards account for the tie, which came last week in a 2-2 draw at Princeton. Colgate and Bucknell have combined for the three victories.
Other conferences the Patriot League has posted winning records against include the America East, Atlantic Sun, Big South, Great West, Northeast, Southern and Southland.
League play will get underway with four matches this weekend, including three Saturday. The day begins when American hosts Navy at 1 p.m. Rivals will square off when Lehigh hosts Lafayette at 3 p.m., and the day wraps up with Bucknell visiting Colgate at 4 p.m.
Sunday boasts one match with Army, in the midst of a six-match homestand, welcoming Holy Cross to West Point.
Patriot League Weekly Awards
BRINE OFFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK
MADDIE MALONE, COLGATE Sr., M, Glen Ridge, N.J.
A senior co-captain who has been playing a lot of defense for the Raiders this season, Malone pitched in on the offensive side of the ball last week, posting a team-high five points on two goals and an assist. She tallied Colgate’s double-overtime game-winner in Tuesday’s 2-1 victory over Dartmouth and scored a goal and tallied an assist in Sunday’s 3-2 win over Canisius. She opened the scoring in the first minute when she converted a penalty kick, then set up Caroline Brawner’s marker 21 minutes later. Malone now leads the League with five assists and is fourth with nine points. It marks the first Patriot League weekly award in Malone’s career.
BRINE DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK
KATE HERREN, NAVY Sr., D, Auburn, Wash.
Herren played every minute in Navy’s three matches last week, and her always solid and sometimes stellar defense paved the way for the Mids’ 2-0-1 mark. After playing 103 minutes in Monday’s 2-1 double-overtime win over Monmouth, Herren was called upon after a red card left her team down a player in Wednesday’s match at UMBC. She played the final 52 minutes as her team’s only player in the center of the defense and performed a number of individual efforts that helped stifle the Retrievers’ offensive opportunities. In Sunday’s 1-0 win over Francis Marion, Herren led a Navy defense that did not allow a shot until the 75th minute.
BRINE GOALKEEPER OF THE WEEK
MONICA LEE, ARMY Sr., GK, Crystal Beach, Fla.
Lee logged back-to-back 1-0 shutouts last week, enabling the Black Knights to bounce back after a tough home loss to Delaware with victories against Howard and Marist in non-League play. She played strong in goal, especially in the second half of Sunday’s victory over the Red Foxes, where she made three saves in the first 10 minutes after halftime to deny Marist the equalizer. With the win, Army snapped Marist’s four-match winning streak. In Thursday’s blanking of Howard, Lee’s biggest save came in the 73rd minute to once again preserve a 1-0 lead. Lee has eight shutouts on the season and 15 for her career, putting her four shy of the League’s all-time top 10.
BRINE ROOKIE OF THE WEEK
CAROLINE BRAWNER, COLGATE Fr., M/F, Mill Creek, Wash.
Brawner tallied points in two matches last week and logged a multiple-point outing in Sunday’s 3-2 win over Canisius. She assisted on Alyssa Manoogian’s game-tying goal in the 68th minute of Tuesday’s contest against Dartmouth, a match the Raiders eventually won in double overtime. Brawner scored in the 23rd minute off a free-kick feed from Maddie Malone to put Colgate up 2-0 and picked an assist on Jillian Kinter’s 77th-minute strike that held up as the game-winner. With her efforts last week, Brawner moved into sole possession of fifth in the League with eight points, while her three goals on the season are tied for fourth.
HONORABLE MENTIONS
CAPRICE KELTY, NAVY Fr., F, Odenton, Md.
Kelty scored both of her team’s goals, including the winner in double overtime, as Navy edged Monmouth 2-1 on Monday. Her first tally was unassisted in the 69th minute, and her game-winner in the 104th minute came after the Hawks had tied the match near the end of regulation.
LAUREN SMEDLEY, LAFAYETTE Jr., GK, Hamilton, N.J.
Smedley went 1-0-1 on the week, stopping 10 shots in a 2-2 draw at Princeton before making a pair of saves to pick up a 1-0 shutout of Manhattan. She now has five clean sheets on the season and 17 for her career.
JILLIAN KINTER, COLGATE Jr., F, Newburyport, Mass.
Kinter logged a pair of game-winning markers last week, scoring in the second half at St. Bonaventure to give the Raiders a 2-1 victory over the Bonnies. She came up big again in the final 45 minutes of Sunday’s 3-2 win over Canisius, logging the game-winning goal over the Griffins.
GINA RIGHINI, HOLY CROSS Fr., M, Salem, N.H.
Righini logged her team-high third goal of the season last week, scoring the game-tying marker in the second half of what ended up as a 1-1 draw at Rider, a team that had won seven of its first 10 matches on the season.
Patriot League Notebook
FIRST BAROMETER CHECK SATURDAY
Patriot League play begins Saturday, giving all eight teams an opportunity to begin figuring out where each stands amongst the rest of the group. Fans will have a chance to follow all four matches during the course of the weekend, as each as its own time for kick off. Navy travels to American Saturday for a 1 p.m. showdown, with a pair of matches following. Lafayette and Lehigh will renew their rivalry for the 21st time at 3 p.m. in Bethlehem, while Colgate and Bucknell square off at 4 p.m. in Hamilton. Army and Holy Cross will wait until Sunday to get their match underway when the two hit the field at West Point for a 1 p.m. start.
ALIVE FOR FIVE
Navy has become a familiar face in the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA)/Continental Tire Mid-Atlantic Top 10, as the Mids are ranked No. 10 for the fifth straight week. This time Navy shares the 10th position with Brown. The Mids went 2-0-1 last week with wins over Monmouth and Francis Marion and a scoreless draw at UMBC.
HISTORICALLY SPEAKING
With the Patriot League now playing its 22nd year of women’s soccer, the eight programs have become pretty familiar with one another. The Lafayette-Lehigh rivalry began in women’s soccer in 1991, and the Mountain Hawks have gotten the better of the Leopards since with a 13-5-2 advantage in the series. American and Navy are deadlocked at 7-7-3 in their series that began in 1994 and became a yearly acquaintance with the Eagles’ move to the Patriot League in 2001. It will be the 24th time Bucknell and Colgate have locked horns when the two play in Hamilton Saturday. The Raiders own a 17-6-0 advantage in the head-to-head matchups. Army and Holy Cross will also play for the 24th time Sunday, with the Black Knights owning a 15-5-3 record in the all-time showdowns.
THE RACE TO HOST
Patriot League play is finally here and the road to the League Tournament begins in earnest. The top four finishers in the standings will qualify for the League Tournament, which will be hosted by the regular-season champion and No. 1 seed. While each team sets out to win the regular season and host the four-team playoff, the tournament results have not been kind in recent years to the top seed. Third-seeded Lehigh’s 1-0 blanking of No. 1 Army in last year’s tournament was the third time in the last four seasons in which the top seed has fallen in the title match.
LEHIGH’S BASUBAS UP FOR LOWE’S AWARD
Lehigh senior midfielder Jana Basubas was named one of thirty candidates for the Lowe’s Senior CLASS Award in the week leading up to the start of the regular season. A defensive-minded midfielder, she proved last season she can effectively play at both ends of the pitch after she netted career-highs in goals (four) and points (nine). She’s played in and started all 55 of her team’s matches the last three years, and carries a 3.40 cumulative grade-point average majoring in sociology. She garnered First-Team All-League honors last season in helping the Mountain Hawks win their first League title in program history.
ARMY VOTED THE FAVORITE
Fresh off a 14-4-3 season with a 4-0-3 mark in Patriot League play and an appearance in the League championship match, Army was voted the favorite to capture the title in 2011 after finishing atop the preseason poll. Head coaches and sports information directors, who could not vote for their own teams, combined to give the Black Knights 93 points and 10 first-place votes, followed by Colgate’s 79 points and four first-place votes. Defending champion Lehigh took third with 75 points and the final two first-place votes. Navy garnered 55 points for fourth and Bucknell received 52 points for fifth. The poll was rounded out by American (46 points) in sixth, Lafayette (25) in seventh and Holy Cross (23) in eighth. Army topped the preseason poll for the first time since sharing the No. 1 position with Colgate in 1993 and again in ‘94.
AN, MCGUIGAN PREDICTED FOR SUCCESS
Not only was Army the top team in the preseason poll, but a pair of Black Knights took home preseason individual awards. Sophomore Kim An posted a remarkable rookie campaign where she led the Patriot League in goals and points a year ago en route to being named Rookie of the Year. She garnered Preseason Offensive Player of the Year honors. Classmate Molly McGuigan, who anchored the Black Knights’ backline last season as a freshman and was named Defensive Player of the Year, added the preseason nod for the same award heading into 2011. Both were First-Team All-Patriot League honorees and earned NSCAA Mid-Atlantic All-Region First-Team laurels in 2010.
SUPER SOPHOMORE
Army’s Molly McGuigan picked up another preseason honor when she was named one of 42 women’s soccer players on the preseason Hermann Trophy Watch List, a prestigious award presented annually by the Missouri Athletic Club to the best men’s and women’s soccer players in NCAA Division I. In addition to being the only Patriot League representative on the preseason watch list, she is just one of six sophomores.
