Feb. 4, 2005
AMHERST, Mass. -
University of Massachusetts women's soccer coach Jim Rudy announced on Thursday that Vanessa Patry and Melissa Toulouse have signed National Letters of Intent. Patry and Toulouse will enroll at the University in the fall as members of the class of 2009.
Patry is a forward/midfielder from Delmar, N.Y. A five-year varsity letterwinner for Bethlehem Central High School, Patry is the school's all-time leader in points, goals and assists. She played for the Capital United club team for eight years, earning NSCAA/adidas All-America and All-East team honors and was the 2004 Times Union Player of the Year in 2004. In the same year, Paltry was the Troy Record Offensive Player of the Year.
"We saw Vanessa for several years in our advanced camp here at UMass and every year she got better as a front player," said Rudy. "We liked her as a forward, she was the Albany area Player of the Year as a central midfielder, and was a member of the East Regional Olympic Development team as a defender. So she has become incredibly well-rounded, and with the amount of progress she's made in the last three years, we see her potential as being unlimited."
Toulouse is a defender from Arlington, Va. A four-year varsity player for the No. 1 ranked Bishop O'Connell Lady Knights, Toulouse was a WCAC All-Star team member her senior year as well as a first, second and honorable mention team member during her career. A member of the BRYC ATTACK club team, she was a five-time captain of the squad, which was the state champion in 2004 as well as the Director's National Cup champion.
"We recruited Mel to be a defender, and in our evaluation of her, we found her to be an extremely hard defender," said Rudy. "She is great in the air and is more of a `stay at home' defender, which is what we were looking for. It is nice to have a strong athlete from northern Virginia back in the fold. We haven't had that since the early 90's with `the Woodies' (Tracy Arwood and Michelle Woodside)."
"For this class, I knew that we didn't want to recruit a large number of athletes as we only lost three last season," said Rudy. "I knew that Vanessa and Mel would mesh well with our recruiting squad and that they would fit the bill for UMass Women's Soccer."
