WOMEN'S SOCCER NOTEBOOK
After a COVID-19 pause the Vermont women's soccer program will return to action for the first time in 11 days Thursday evening as they face Stony Brook in the America East Semifinals from Lowell, Massachusetts. Opening kick between the Catamounts at the top-seed from Division B is set for 6 p.m. All of the action will be streamed live on AmericaEast.TV.
The top-seed in Division A UMass Lowell will host Binghamton at 2 p.m. Thursday. The winners of the two contests Thursday will face each other in the America East Championship Saturday, April 17 at 5 p.m. Regardless of the results the title game will be played at UMass Lowell as well.
RELATED LINKS
Video | Live Stats | America East Championship Central
BANKERT AND KNOBEL EARN CONFERENCE HONORS
First year
Abbey Knobel was named to the America East All-Rookie Team and senior
Ella Bankert was named to the America East All-Academic Team Wednesday morning by the conference office as they announced their women's soccer major award winners.
Knobel has started four of the Catamounts five games this spring for Vermont. The Nanuet, N.Y. native picked up her first career point with an assist in UVM's 2-1 win at NJIT on March 25. Knobel is the 22nd student-athlete in UVM women's soccer history to be named to the America East All-Rookie Team.
Bankert has maintained a 3.90 GPA as a Dietetics, Nutrition and Food Sciences major. She has served as a co-captain for the Catamounts over each of the last two seasons. She was named to the 2017, 2018 and 2019 America East Commissioner's Honor Roll. She has started 52 games in her career for Vermont including all five tilts this season.
KESSEL'S HISTORIC TRIP TO ORONO
Lydia Kessel made a career-high 20 saves in the April 4 1-1 draw at Maine. Her 20 saves tied an America East single game record. Her 20 stops are the second-most by a Division I men's or women's goalkeeper in a single game this season. Only Southern University's Chioma Eriken, who made 22 saves against LSU on March 5, has more in a single game this season.
Kessel is tied for the conference lead in saves with 46 this season. She is tied with NJIT's Molly Saylor who has played in three more games than Kessel. Her .852 save-percentage is fourth-best in the league.
SEMIFINAL HISTORY FOR THE CATAMOUNTS
UVM will be making its eighth semifinal appearance Thursday evening against the Seawolves and fifth under Head Coach
Kristi Huizenga. UVM is 1-5-1 all-time in the semifinal round. UVM's win came in 2017 when they defeated Binghamton 1-0 to advance to the program's first-ever title game. UVM has only once played a semifinal game at a neutral site. In 1998 all games were played at Towson and UVM fell 5-1 to the top-seed Hartford.
POSTSEASON HISTORY AT UMASS LOWELL
UVM's last playoff game came on October 25, 2018 as they faced UMass Lowell on the road in the quarterfinals. In a scoreless affair
Lydia Kessel made 14 saves for the Catamounts, then a new career-high for the first year. The River Hawks defeated UVM 4-3 in penalty kicks to advance.
SCOUTING STONY BROOK
The Seawolves earned the top spot in Division B with a 4-0-0 start to conference play, defeating their opponents by a combined score of 12-2. However, the Seawolves winning streak was snapped in a 1-0 road loss to UAlbany in their last action. Like UVM Stony Brook has been off since April 4.
In conference play the two top-seeds of the tournament – UMass Lowell and Stony Brook, are the only two teams to have scored in double digits during league play. The Seawolves offensive attack is led by graduate forward Alyssa Francese and senior midfielder Chelsie Deponte. Francese has five goals this season, tied for the lead in conference, and Deponte has four. Sophomore defender Catharina von Drigalski leads the conference with three assists this year.
Of note with the possibility of penalty kicks after overtime, Stony Brook has taken three penalties this season and converted all three times.
SERIES HISTORY
The all-time series between the Catamounts and Seawolves is knotted up at 14-14-1. The teams last meeting in the America East Playoffs came in the 2017 America East Championship game, the Seawolves defeated Vermont 2-1 at home in that contest. In 2016 the Catamounts defeated Stony Brook 3-1 in PKs to knock off the Seawolves and advance to the semifinals after a scoreless draw through 110 minutes.
