Vermont Women's Soccer Weekly Notebook
 
The Vermont women's soccer team opens up the 2016 regular season Saturday on the road against the Marist Red Foxes at 5 p.m. All of the action can be seen on the Red Fox Network.
 
RELATED LINKS
Burlington Free Press – Preview | Colchester Connection
2016 Vermont Women's Soccer Schedule
Marist Game Coverage – Live Stats | Live Video ($$)
 
Preseason Poll
For the first time in its program's history, Albany is the preseason favorite in the America East Conference. Vermont, after finishing third a year ago and with a winning conference record for the first time since 2005, is picked to finish fifth.
 
Catamount Newcomers
Head coach Kristi Lefebvre, who enters her sixth season at the helm, welcomes a four-member freshman class to Burlington for 2016. Christina Barry, Megan Frost, Bridgette King and Julia Smith make up the class of 2020 for the Catamounts. You can read more on the newcomers, here.
 
Lefebvre also adds a pair of new assistant coaches into the fold – Brad Keller and Colchester-native Lauren Bernard. Keller played his collegiate soccer at Washington and was an All-Pac-10 honoree. Bernard, who recently finished a standout four-year career at Boston College, was a two-time Vermont Gatorade Player of the Year during high school.
 
2015 Rewind
Vermont enters the 2016 season coming off one of its finest campaigns in recent memory. The Catamounts went 8-8-2 (4-3-1 AE) finishing third in the league standings and advancing to the league semifinals. UVM upended UMBC in the America East quarterfinals, 1-0; the first-ever night game at Virtue Field. Four Catamounts earned all-conference honors, three of whom return for the 2016 season. Nikki McFarland and Sarah Martin both landed on the All-Conference Second Team while Casey Garfinkel found a spot on the All-Rookie team. McFarland tallied a team-high 16 points and seven goals last season.
 
Scouting Marist
Marist exceeded expectations in 2015 after being predicted to finish near the bottom of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC). The Red Foxes finished third following a 7-11-2 (6-3-1 MAAC) campaign and lost to Siena in the conference postseason tournament. This season Marist was tabbed to finish fifth and sophomore midfielder Hope Quinonez was named to the Preseason All-MAAC Team.
 
Series History
The Catamounts and Red Foxes have met five times and UVM holds a commanding 4-0-1 edge in the all-time series. Last year, the two teams played to a scoreless draw in Burlington.