The 20th season of women’s soccer at the University of New Haven already ranks among the best in terms of both team success and individual performances. Beginning on Wednesday afternoon at Southern New Hampshire, the Chargers will begin the postseason with an opportunity to further elevate the 2012 campaign in the annals of program history.
New Haven finished the regular season at 11-6-1 in the third season for Head Coach
Laura Duncan, marking its highest win total since 2007. The club’s eight conference wins and sixth-place finish both represent program bests since joining the Northeast-10 beginning in the 2008 campaign. For their efforts, the Chargers enter the postseason
ranked No. 5 in the NSCAA East Region rankings, which are used to help determine the NCAA Championship field. But with three of the six NCAA Division II East Region Championship berths set to be claimed by the NE-10, ECC and CACC Champions, only the program’s first-ever conference crown will guarantee a trip to the national postseason.
The Chargers met Southern New Hampshire to conclude the regular season
on Oct. 27 on Kayo Field, with the visiting Penmen erasing 1-0 and 2-1 deficits en route to a 4-2 win. The victory locked up the third-seed for Southern New Hampshire and guaranteed that the clubs would meet again in the quarterfinal round of the Northeast-10 Championship. SNHU will provide both
live stats and
live video for the 4 p.m. contest from Manchester.
The New Haven offense has been led by 12 goals from
Monica Yanez (West Haven, Conn./West Haven) – the second-highest total in the conference this fall and the most by a Charger since 2009.
Nicole Pacapelli (West Haven, Conn./West Haven / Stonehill College) has added seven markers and
Lucy Francisco (Lawrence, Mass./Lawrence ) – one of the most-prolific scorers in New Haven history – has notched six in her senior campaign at UNH.
Marisa Garcia (Babylon, N.Y./West Babylon) is the club’s top distributor with six assists in her rookie year.
Defensively, the Chargers have started the same back row for all 18 matches:
Ali Espanol (Branford, Conn./Branford),
Amanda Hathaway (Stillwater, N.Y./Stillwater),
Danielle Iacono (Merrick, N.Y./Sanford H. Calhoun / Nassau C.C.) and
Lauren Primovic (Avon, Conn./Avon ). New Haven has posted five clean sheets this fall, with starting goalkeeper
Natasha Purchla (Oakdale, N.Y./Connetquot) between the posts for three of those shutouts.
The winner of the New Haven-Southern New Hampshire matchup will either host No. 7 seed Southern Connecticut State or travel to second-seeded Saint Rose on Friday, Nov. 2. The other side of the bracket features top seed and regular-season champion American International hosting eighth-seeded Adelphi and fourth-seeded Merrimack entertaining No. 5 seed Franklin Pierce.
