Oct. 31, 2009

The UMass Lowell women’s soccer team, seeded No. 3 for the Northeast-10 Conference Tournament, will host No. 6 Stonehill College Sunday (1:00) in the quarterfinal round at Cushing Field.

In the other quarterfinal matches, No. 1 Saint Rose (18-0, 15-0 in the NE-10), the regular season champion, hosts No. 8 New Haven (10-6-3, 7-8-2) while No. 2 Franklin Pierce (14-3-2, 12-2-1) hosts No. 7 Saint Anselm (9-8-1, 8-7-0). No. 4 Merrimack (13-4-2, 10-4-1) hosts No. 5 Adelphi (10-5-2, 8-5-2).

All four matches kick-off at 1:00. UMass Lowell will stream live stats at: http://www.goriverhawks.com/livestats/w-soccer/xlive.htm.

Admission for the match is $5 for adults; $3 for senior citizens, children ages 12 and under and non-UMass Lowell students; and $1 for UMass Lowell students. Students must have valid identification.

With a victory, UMass Lowell will play the Franklin Pierce-Saint Anselm winner Thursday at the site of the higher seed. The championship is slated for Sunday, Nov. 8.

UMass Lowell (11-4-3, 10-3-2) looks to rebound after ending the regular season with consecutive losses at No. 2 Saint Rose (1-0) last Saturday at home and Wednesday night against Merrimack (1-0).

After starting the season with a 4-7 clip, the Skyhawks are 6-0-1 in their last seven outings, which includes five shutout wins.

“Stonehill is a good team with very dangerous players up front,” said UML head coach Elie Monteiro. “We need to continue to play well and concentrate on putting our chances away, as we did well in the earlier parts of the season.”

The Skyhawks (10-7-1, 8-6-1) are led by junior F Kirstie St. Martin, who ranks among NE-10 leaders with 14 goals and five assists; and sophomore Kelsey Mahoney, who has chipped in five goals and 10 assists.

Freshman Taylor Hartmann (Feeding Hills, MA) leads the River Hawks with seven goals and two assists while junior Brianne Bozzella (Wilmington, MA) is close behind with six goals and four assists.

Defensively, UMass Lowell ranks among the top teams in the country behind senior G Jamie Gillis (North Billerica, MA), who has compiled a school-record 12 shutouts en route to a 0.37 goals against average and a .901 save rate (64 saves, seven goals conceded).

Gillis is well supported behind the defense of seniors Kathleen Strazzere (Wilmington, MA) and Colleen Fitzpatrick (Tewksbury, MA), juniors Ella Merullo (Wakefield, MA) and Michelle LaMar (Billerica, MA).

Stonehill looks to avenge the regular season meeting on Sept. 9, in which the River Hawks prevailed, 3-1, behind one goal and one assist from Bozzella and goals from Hartman and freshman Jenna Costa (North Attleboro, MA). Mahoney opened the scoring in the 13th minute for Stonehill.

“We possessed well, so it kept their dangerous players from seeing a lot of the ball,” said UML head coach Elie Monteiro. “We also covered each other really well when they did have the ball on our back third.”

Stonehill leads the all-time series 8-4-3 and won the first six meetings of the series. Over the last nine matches, UMass Lowell has gone 4-2-3 against the Skyhawks since the 2001 season.