Sept. 2, 2008

After posting a 0-1-1 record away from home, the UMass women's soccer team opens its 2008 home slate on Thursday at 4:30 p.m. vs. longtime New England rival New Hampshire. The Minutewomen dropped a heartbreaker in the season-opener at Binghamton (Aug. 24) while playing to a scoreless tie against Maine on Aug. 29. The team looks to win its second-consecutive home opener and to improve the already stellar mark of 22-8 in home debuts. Last season, UMass topped Iona 2-1 on Sept. 7 to give Head Coach Jim Rudy his 300th career victory. Admission to Thursday's contest is free to all! For fans who can't make it, be sure to follow the action through Gametracker or watch on UMass All-Access, beginning at approximately 4:20 p.m.

UMass In Home Openers
•The Minutewomen own an impressive 22-8 record in home openers, including 11 consecutive wins before their first loss in 1989.
•The team has won two of the last three home openers, including a 3-0 win over Hartford in 2005 and a 2-1 victory over Iona in 2007.
•UMass has played New Hampshire once in a home opener, falling to the Wildcats in 2006 by a 2-0 final.

UMass-UNH Series History
•UMass owns a convincing 17-2-1 record in the all-time series history.
•The first game between the two schools was in the program's fourth-ever contest, a 2-0 win in the Plymouth State Tournament during the inaugural 1978 varsity campaign.
•The last UMass win came in 2001, a 3-0 victory on Sept. 28.

Scouting New Hampshire
•With a win over Holy Cross and losses vs. Villanova and Central Connecticut, the Wildcats head into Thursday's contest with a 1-2 record.
•They narrowly escaped with a 2-1 win over the Crusaders in the season opener before dropping two more one-goal games, to Villanova (2-1) and CCSU (1-0).
•Reigning America East Striker of the Year Michelle Sheehan has one of the team's three goals while reigning AE Midfielder of the Year Caitlin Whelan and Shaunna Kaplan have the others. Amy Avitable has picked up the only two assists.
•Ally Yost has started two games in net, posting a 1-1 record with a .800 save percentage and 2.00 GAA. Nikki Golding started the other, falling defeat with a .800 save percentage and 1.00 GAA.
•UNH is looking to duplicate a tremendous 2007 campaign in which it advanced all the way to the America East title match before falling to Boston University by a 2-1 final. The Wildcats' final record stood at 11-7-2, 6-1-1 in conference play (which tied for the top regular season mark).

Senior Sensations
•The Minutewomen have one goal so far this season with it coming in the season-opener at Binghamton. The goal was scored by redshirt senior defender Tina Rodriguez and assisted by another redshirt senior, Vanessa Lima.
•For Rodriguez, it marked her first-career goal in her 47th collegiate game. It was also her first game played in almost two full years. She was injured on Oct. 1, 2006 vs. La Salle and has been rehabbing since then with her hard work leading to her first goal.
•The feat was similar to a moment from last year when senior defender Kaelyn Caldwell recorded her first-career goal in her 59th career game. She found the back of the net in a 3-1 win at Xavier on Oct. 7.
•Lima's assist was her first point as a Minutewoman since 2005 when she netted a career-high two goals on Oct. 14 vs. Duquesne.

First Of Many?
•Junior goalkeeper Lauren Luckey had a stellar seven save performance on Aug. 29 vs. Maine to earn her first-career shutout.
•Last year, she went an appearance without allowing a goal, but it came in a relief outing on Oct. 19 vs. Fordham. Luckey replaced an injured Kristin Walker and closed out the 1-0 win.

Young Bunch
•The UMass women's soccer program welcomes eight newcomers to this year's squad including seven freshmen.
•Freshmen: Amanda Carvalho (Cheshire, Conn.), Meghan Collins (North Wales, Pa.), Lindsey DiOrio (Bridgewater, N.J.), Rachel Miranda (Hopedale, Mass.), Natalie Muka (Cortland, N.Y.), Katie Muller (Pittsburgh, Pa.), and Maura Romano (Wexford, Pa.)
•Romano and Muller are familiar with each other as they played club ball together as part of the IFC Blast.
•The eighth newcomer has actually seen time with the Minutewomen in 2004 and 2005. Lima played two seasons at UMass before transferring to Salem State and then retransferring back to Amherst.
•In total, 12 of the 22 Minutewomen are either freshmen or sophomores, giving Head Coach Jim Rudy one of the youngest groups he has ever coached.

New Roles
•With such a young team, Rudy is turning to experienced veterans to lead the way. He used the same starting lineup for both games thus far.
•In total, five of the starters are seniors, two juniors and four sophomores.
•Junior Cristina Adams and freshmen Meghan Collins and Natalie Muka have seen action off the bench.
•After working her way into more and more playing time, senior Amy Ballew was rewarded with her first-career start on Aug. 24 at Binghamton along with starting the Aug. 29 game vs. Maine. She played all 110 minutes in the tie vs. the Black Bears.

Last Time Out: Minutewomen Play Maine To Scoreless Tie
SOUTH BERWICK, Maine - Behind the first career shutout of junior goalkeeper Lauren Luckey, the UMass women's soccer team played to a scoreless draw with Maine on Friday afternoon at Marshwood High School. The Minutewomen are now 0-1-1 on the season, while the Black Bears sit at 1-0-1.

Kaitlin MacIsaac took the first shot of the game for Maine nine minutes into the contest. The ball was headed for the right corner of the goal, but was promptly grabbed by Luckey.

UMass countered with a shot on net by junior Katie Ruggles at 13:46, while senior Vanessa Patry took the team's second and final attempt of the period in the 22nd minute.

Pace picked up at the start of the second as Black Bears' leading scorer Laura Martel found herself in one-on-one with Luckey on the right side of the goal in the 47th minute, but the shot was quickly covered by the Minutewomen's netminder.

Then at 66:14, Kelsey Anderson sent a dangerous ball from long range for the Minutewomen in towards the top of the Maine goal. However, goalkeeper Jasmine Philips leapt to get a hand on the ball, knocking it off the crossbar and out of harm's way.

"Although we certainly didn't want a tie, we'll gladly accept it rather than the overtime loss of last week," said UMass Head Coach Jim Rudy. "Jasmine Phillips was the difference in the game with one full stretch dive and catch and a flying touch-over that most keepers would have been clearly beaten on. I'm happy with the evolution of our team in terms of defense and midfield in that we really didn't allow many quality chances today. Sometimes I have to keep reminding myself that we're new in many different positions from last year."

The Black Bears finished the contest with eight shots to the Minutewomen's six, with four coming in the opening period. Luckey tallied seven saves in net for Massachusetts, while Phillips made four stops for Maine. Corner kicks were 7-5 in favor of UMass and fouls were 8-6 against the Minutewomen.

Season Preview
Heading into 2008, the Minutewomen will have an impressive blend of seasoned veterans and youngsters in the quest for their first Atlantic 10 Tournament appearance since 2004. The `08 version will look to build upon two-consecutive strong seasons after posting an 11-6 record in 2006 and 9-6-2 mark in 2007. With last season's undefeated nonconference season and wins over A-10 Finalist Fordham and Semifinalist Richmond, things are pointed in the right direction as Head Coach Jim Rudy looks to build the program back into a Northeast power.

When looking ahead to the season Rudy knows the potential is in place, "If this team can get the right playing blend on the field of older and younger players and get the right cooperation of players, [then we can be very good]," he said.

The challenge is in front of Rudy and the coaching staff to incorporate eight newcomers with 14 returnees. Replacing the production of Kaelyn Caldwell, Britt Canfield, Christina Nunes, Jenny Roehrig, and Kristin Walker to graduation will not be easy, but with the talent in place, UMass will turn to senior tri-captains Vanessa Patry, Tina Rodriguez, and Melissa Toulouse to lead the way.

Captains

Patry, Rodriguez, and Toulouse have all been vital parts of UMass' success in their time on campus. Patry, a forward, will return as a second-year captain; she shared the title last season with Roehrig and Walker and as Rudy said, has "a certain joy that you don't see in a lot of players. She lifts our playing spirits by her personality of play."

Rodriguez is returning for her fifth season after redshirting in 2007. She will team with Toulouse as captains in the back.

"I'm very comfortable with them [as captains]," Rudy said. "They're good people, good students. They have a pretty good knack of dealing with other people, whether it's younger people or people their own age, dealing with them in an effective manner."

Goalkeepers

Junior Lauren Luckey and freshman Katie Muller will be in competition for the starting goaltending position. Trying to replace Walker, an All-Conference performer, will be a daunting task, but both resumes are impressive. Despite missing four games with an injury, Walker still finished her career n second place on the UMass All-Time list with 373 saves, trailing Danielle Dion by just 11 for the top spot. With three shutouts in 2007, Walker also inched up to fourth place on the career shutout list with 21. The fresh blood of Luckey and Muller look to fill that gap and create storybook careers of their own.

Luckey is entering her third season with invaluable college experience; after failing to see action as a freshman, she played in eight games in 2007 (starting four) while posting a 1.36 GAA, .879 save percentage to along with a 2-3-0 record. She also saw time with the WPSL's New England Mutiny during the summer and recorded a miniscule GAA.

Meanwhile, as Rudy said, Muller is a "freshman coming in who aspires to play. It's going to make a nice combination there. Ideally, I'd like to have a little bit more depth with a third goalkeeper because that hurt us a few years ago when [in one instance,] we lost both of them."

Defenders

The defensive end of the field is where the Minutewomen will endure the smallest turnover. As Rudy said, "If it works out this way, we could have all four defenders who played there all spring." He is referring to junior Katie Ruggles (who made a transition to defense in the spring) on the left side, sophomores Kelsey Anderson and Alyssa Visconti on the right, and redshirt-senior Rodriguez in the middle. Toulouse, a senior, is also in the mix at either defense or midfield. As Rudy said, the most important thing is the fact that "There's flexibility and they've all got experience playing across the back."

The returning core of defenders is impressive, led by the leadership of Rodriguez and Toulouse to go along with the youthfulness of Anderson and Visconti. Anderson and Visconti were both thrown into the fire as freshmen, not only starting every game, but also enjoying tremendous success. Anderson tallied six points (2g, 2a), with both goals being game-winners while Visconti was named the team's Outstanding Newcomer at its annual end-of-year banquet.

Freshmen who could make a significant impact are Meghan Collins, Lindsey DiOrio, and Rachel Miranda. Collins was the leading scorer for North Penn High School in 2007 and was named Rookie of the Year in 2005 while DiOrio was named team captain in 2007 and was a three-time All-Somerset County and All-Conference selection. Miranda was a Dual Valley Conference Champion and All-Star in 2007 and was recognized as All-State and All-Central Massachusetts last year.

"In off the left side, we've got terrific freshmen that can play there [as well as] Ruggles and Anderson who can play there," Rudy said. "We have enough people to play off the right side and [in the middle]. I feel pretty good; it's the most depth we've ever had in the back.

"[The depth is] a good thing because after this year, we could potentially lose two central defenders," he continued. You don't necessarily want to replace them with freshmen."

Midfielders

Rudy has a number of decisions to make at midfield in hopes of replacing Roehrig, who started every game in her four-year career. Versatility will not be the issue as there is a number of interchangeable parts. The left side looks to be occupied by Ruggles, sophomore Ashley Hamel or even Anderson or lefty freshman Maura Romano. Meanwhile, Anderson, redshirt senior Vanessa Lima, Hamel, junior Jacquelyn Desjardins, Collins, or DiOrio could see time at right midfield. Lima is a retransfer who started her career at UMass before moving onto Salem State and then transferring back to play in her fourth year of eligibility for the Minutewomen. In her previous time at UMass, she played at right midfield, so her experience could prove crucial down the stretch.

Throughout the decision-making process, Rudy will keep one distinguisher in the back of his mind. As he put it, "We like the people in the flank that can penetrate, can get around the corners and get the end line and beat people."

Rudy admits that there are many questions that need to be answered at center midfield. "After not playing much in her first three years, will Amy Ballew be able to fit the bill," he said. "Will Meghan Gould be able to come back from her post-concussion and ankle surgery? Can Therese Smith go from a creative player in high school who never had to defend too much and become a complete player [who will] be able to play both defense and attack out at midfield? Is Collins going to play in the middle? These are all questions that have to be answered."

Forwards

The big hole at forward will be Canfield, who graduated as one of the premier offensive forces in UMass history. Her strong 2007 campaign in which she finished with 26 points (8g, 10a) propelled her into the school's record book for a number of categories. She finished with 77 points (eighth in UMass history), 30 goals (t-10th), 10 game-winning goals (t-sixth), and 198 shots (second). The Minutewomen will look to a young core of talent to continue the production.

Amanda Carvalho, Romano, and Natalie Muka highlight the freshmen who look to compete for playing time. Along with the freshmen is junior Cristina Adams, who saw significant playing time down the stretch in 2007 and responded with nine points (3g, 3a), including the game's only goal in an upset of Fordham. Patry should also see time at forward, but as Rudy said, "she could be a central midfield player since she's player there before. That remains to be seen."

Lima is also versatile and could see action up front. Rudy said he is "comfortable with Lima in a lot of roles." Junior Sydney Stoll is also a talented forward on the roster, but looks unlikely to see action due to injury.