GAME DAY INFORMATION |
DATE: April 3, 2021
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LOCATION: Kathy Zolad Stadium
West Haven, Conn.
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GAME DAY LINKS |
LIVE STATS | LIVE VIDEO
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THE LEAD
The No. 19 New Haven women's lacrosse team looks for its first back-to-back wins of the season on Saturday when they host the Saint Rose Golden Knights at Kathy Zolad Stadium. Opening draw in the Northeast-10 Southwest Division match-up is slated for 1:00 p.m. with all of the action available on the Chargers Sports Network on NE10 NOW and live stats available through NewHavenChargers.com.
SERIES HISTORY VS SAINT ROSE
Saturday's match-up between Saint Rose and New Haven will be the first between the two conference opponents with the Golden Knights adding women's lacrosse to its sport offerings prior to the 2020 season that was cut short due to the CoVID-19 Pandemic. The Chargers and Golden Knights were scheduled to play their first ever game on April 18 of last season.
SCOUTING THE CHARGERS
The Chargers return to West Haven for the first time in over a week as they look to build upon an 8-7 win over No. 6/9 Adelphi last time out in Garden City, N.Y. In that win, New Haven relied on six different players for scoring with senior Mary Rishmany (Tiverton, R.I./Bishop Stang) and junior Marina Skelly (Ronkonkoma, N.Y./Connetquot) each netting a team-best two goals. Rishmany also added an assist to lead the team with three points. For the season, senior Emily Holland (Londonderry, N.H./Londonderry) leads the Chargers with 13 goals and an assist for 14 points. Skelly stands just behind her with 11 points as the pair are both approaching career milestones. Holland stands 37 goals shy of reaching the century mark, while Skelly needs just seven goals to reach the half century tally. In each of its last four games, the Chargers have relied on freshman goalkeeper Fabiana McLeod between the pipes. The rookie has stopped 36 shots in those games, earning her first victory of the year in the upset of Adelphi.
SCOUTING THE GOLDEN KNIGHTS
Saint Rose enters Saturday's game with an 0-3 record on the year. In their inaugural season in 2020, the Golden Knights posted a 2-3 record before the CoVID-19 shutdown, with both of those wins coming on their home turf over District of Columbia and Post. Through the first three games this season Saint Rose is being outscored by an average of 13 goals per game, scoring 19 total as a team. Individually, sophomore midfielder Deanna Ciliento leads the team with eight goals which have come on 14 shots on goal. Following her in leading the squad is rookie midfielder Daria Bock who enters with four goals and two assists for six points. In goal, Saint Rose has started freshman Dorothy Gaffney in all three games with her playing all but 30 minutes on the year. For the season, Gaffney has collected 25 saves, while teammate sophomore Madeline Yeung has a pair of saves in 30 minutes between the pipes.
LINTON SETS PROGRAM RECORD IN SEASON OPENER
Heading into the season opener, New Haven's graduate defender Raven Linton (Lawrenceville, N.J./Notre Dame) needed just nine draw controls to tie Kathryn Campbell '12 for the program record. By the time the final horn blew, Linton hadn't just tied Campbell, she surpassed her career total setting a new program record with 276 total draw controls. The best part about it, Linton has eight more games on the schedule to add to that total putting it farther out of reach for future Chargers.
HOLLAND ON THE HUNT
With her six goals in the season opener against American International, senior attack Emily Holland (Londonderry, N.H./Londonderry) began her milestone march towards 100 career goals. Currently with 63 goals, if she were to maintain an average of 4.6 goals per game, she would reach the century club in the regular season finale which slated to be against Adelphi on April 24. If she were to reach that plateau, she would be the 18th player in program history to hit that mark, and the first since Mackenzie Reh (Medford, N.Y./Patchogue Medford) '19.
SKELLY KEEPS STREAK ALIVE
Dating back to April 27, 2019, junior midfielder Marina Skelly (Ronkonkoma, N.Y./Connetquot) has scored at least one goal in each of the last 10 games for the Blue and Gold. Overall in her career, she has scored at least one goal in all but four of her 26 games played, entering Saturday's game with 43 career goals, inching closer to the mid-century mark. Additionally, Skelly stands just four points away from 50 in her career.
POST SEASON PLANS
As announced by the conference office on April 1st, the NE10 has adopted a postseason plan that includes all 14 teams qualifying for the conference championship. The Championship will be conducted in divisional play until the title game. With seven teams in each division, the top seeded team will receive a one-round bye with the highest seeds, 2-4, hosting first round games on Friday, April 30. Second round match-ups will take place on Monday, May 3 with a divisional championship set for Thursday, Mary 6. The NE10 Championship, which will pit the two divisional champions against each other, is slated for Sunday, May 9.
THE 2021 SCHEDULE
As announced by the league prior to the season, the NE10 adopted a divisional format for 2021 – Northeast and Southwest – with all schools slated to play a 12-game conference schedule. Each team will play their divisional opponents twice. New Haven will play in the Southwest Division which is made up of seven teams including Adelphi, American International, Le Moyne, Pace, Saint Rose and Southern Connecticut. In addition to its 12-game conference schedule, this game against Bentley will be the lone non-divisional game for the Chargers this season.
CHARGERS FOURTH IN PRESEASON POLL
In a poll of the conference's 14 head coaches, the UNH women's lacrosse team was selected to finish fourth, among the seven teams, in the Southwest Division. Adelphi received 86 points and eight of the 14 possible first place votes to take the top spot in the division. Just two points behind them was Le Moyne who scored the remaining six first place tallies. Rounding out the top three was Pace with 61 points, followed closely by the Chargers with 58 points. Southern Connecticut (38 points), American International (32) and Saint Rose (26) rounded out the division. In the Northeast Division, Bentley and Assumption finished just one point apart for first place, with the Falcons earning 79 points and five first place votes, while Assumption came in with 78 points and seven first place votes.
LINTON NAMED PRESEASON ALL-AMERICAN
In its annual release of preseason All-Americans in early January, US Lacrosse Magazine included graduate defender Raven Linton (Lawrenceville, N.J./Notre Dame) among its 13-member team. Linton was one of four players in the Northeast-10 to earn the distinction. In the shortened season in 2020, Linton finished with 18 draw controls, splitting them evenly against Holy Family and New York Tech, also scoring once against each. The defender has been a force on the draw since arriving at New Haven, amassing 265 total heading into the season opener against American International. Her 265 draw controls is currently second most in program history, needing just 10 to pass Kathryn Campbell (2012-15) who finished with 274. In addition, Linton has scored nine goals, racked up 103 ground balls and caused 90 turnovers.
CHARGERS NATIONALLY RANKED IN COACHES POLL
Following Saturday's meeting with Pace, the Chargers remain among the top teams in the country, earning a spot in the Intercollegiate Women's Lacrosse Coaches Association (IWLCA) poll. In the Coaches Poll, conducted by the IWLCA, New Haven enters the week 19th among the top-25.
UP NEXT
New Haven will head back on the road for its next two games with both trips taking them to the Empire State. First on the docket will be a visit to Syracuse, N.Y. for a date with Le Moyne at Ted Grant Field on Saturday, April 10. Opening draw between the Chargers and Dolphins is set for 11:00 a.m. with all the action from the game carried live on NE10 NOW, and live stat links available at NewHavenChargers.com.
