America East Daily Word - September 2

I went to the Red Sox-Yankees game last night at Fenway Park. 

Four hours later I was still at the Red Sox-Yankees game at Fenway Park. 
 
While the two teams battled in their typical four-plus hour marathon game, there were plenty of America East contests taking place, and ending, before Mariano Rivera caught Adrian Gonzalez looking to close it out. 

Men’s soccer squads went 2-2-1 last night but the two wins were firsts for the two program’s head coaches, the two losses were by a combined two goals and the one tie only happened because the power went out.  A solid effort overall last night. 

Down in New Jersey, Trevor Gorman and the Albany Great Danes were in search of their first win of the season.  Victims of two one-goal losses in their only games this year, the Danes overmatched the New Jersey Institute of Technology rolling past the Highlanders to the tune of a 4-1 drubbing.  The win marks the first for Trevor Gorman in his tenure at Albany. 

The Hartford men’s soccer team hadn’t officially started it’s season until last night.  A ‘no-contest’ was ruled in the Hawks’ first game of the season thanks to Hurricane Irene, which made Thursday night’s tilt with Siena in Connecticut the ‘official’ season opener for first-year head coach Tom Poitras and company.  Ryan Wahab tallied the lone goal for Hartford off a header in the 42nd minute and it ultimately proved to be the game winner for the Hawks.  Poitras has led three different teams to wins in his coaching career and he can now add a fourth, picking up his first win at the helm of the Hawks.



Another men’s soccer coach, Stony Brook’s Ryan Anatol, will get two chances to pick up his first win with the Seawolves this weekend.  Stony Brook travels to Pittsburgh, Pa., to tangle in the Duquesne Invitational with games against the host Dukes and the Pittsburgh Panthers. 

The UNH men’s soccer team had Iona on the ropes last night in Durham but two late second half goals from the Gaels were the undoing for the Wildcats as they dropped a 2-1 decision.  Boston U. had the tough task of knocking off #17 Monmouth on the road.  The Terriers surrendered an early goal and were unable to tally the equalizer, falling 1-0.  And in the final game of the night, the lights literally went out on UMBC and St. Francis.  Both teams had numerous chances, hit countless posts and crossbars but neither could score.  In the 72nd minute, power went out on UMBC’s campus leaving the soccer pitch in darkness.  The game was called a 0-0 draw.

The Stony Brook women’s soccer team also took to the pitch last night, the only America East women’s soccer squad in action.  The Seawolves fell to Rhode Island 1-0.  And in field hockey action, Fairfield toppled Siena 2-1. 

The schedule this weekend is jam-packed.  That may be the understatement of the year and it’s only September 2.  We have 56 games scheduled for this weekend throughout the America East and a handful of cross country races to get the running season underway.  You can get all your updates by following America East on twitter or by logging on to AmericaEast.com.

In other news, Binghamton continues to break ground on new athletic facilities for its softball, baseball and tennis programs.  The $5 million project is tentatively scheduled to be completed by July 1, 2012, according to a news story from WBNG.  Binghamton officials say they hope some projects will be done in time for the spring seasons.  

For previews of select action this weekend, check out the links below...

UVM women's soccer | field hockey

UMBC women's soccer | Volleyball

Boston U. women's soccer | men's soccer

UMBC Men's Soccer Goes "Lights Out"

The UMBC men's soccer team took the field last night against NEC opponent St. Francis College. A large crowd of students, faculty and alumni were on hand to take in the experience of UMBC's first-ever night game at Retriever Soccer Park. It was a perfect night for soccer as the Retrievers looked to add to their 1-0-0 record. The first half featured several scoring opportunities for both teams. The Retrievers' best opportunity came when sophomore Pete Caringi III sent a header off the near post, off a corner kick from senior Andrew Bulls. St. Francis countered with several opportunities but neither team could find the back of the net.

The second half featured the same back-and-forth chances for both teams. Perhaps the most exciting play of the game occurred in the 64th minute when Andrew Bulls took a free kick from just outside of the box. Bulls struck the ball off the cross bar from 24 yards away and left everyone holding their heads in disbelief. A sense of uncertainty started to settle into the crowd as the Retrievers kept missing opportunities and the Terriers' chances continued to get closer and closer. With 18 minutes left the entire campus lost power, leaving the soccer field pitch black under the cloud-covered sky. Power wasn't restored until early the next morning forcing the game to end in a 0-0 draw. The match would have certainly ended in dramatic fashion.

The Retrievers return to action on Saturday when they host Fairleigh Dickinson University at 7pm at Retriever Soccer Park.

Written by Curtis Schickner, UMBC '12

America East Daily Word - September 1

September is here and that means today is the worst day to drive your car in Boston.  Trucks, moving vans and traffic, traffic, traffic.  

We did make it into the office this morning, though, albeit with a few delays and masses of people on the Red Line.  

Scott Diamond

We told you yesterday about former Binghamton pitcher Scott Diamond and his quest to pick up his first major league win.  Diamond toed the rubber for the Minnesota Twins yesterday afternoon for the third time since being called up from triple-A Rochester.  The southpaw pitched six solid innings against the White Sox on the South Side and even got spotted a 6-run lead before he even through a pitch, but still needed to wait until the bottom of the ninth to see if he'd get that win.

The Twins jumped out early against Jake Peavy scoring six times in the top of the first.  That eased a few nerves for the rookie lefty who then proceeded to throw six innings of three-hit ball giving up just three runs.  He left the game with a 6-3 lead.  The Twinkies would add another run in the seventh and the White Sox would tack one on in the eighth to make it 7-4.  But in the ninth inning, things got interesting.  Diamond almost watched his win slip away when former Stony Brook pitcher Joe Nathan, the Twins all-time leader in saves, surrendered a two-run single to Paul Konerko.  Nathan rebounded, though, striking out Alex Rios to end it and preserving the win for Diamond, the first of his major league career.  

"I'm always working for the next one, but this is an unbelievable accomplishment," Diamond said after the ball game. 

That's a pretty cool day for America East baseball.  Two former conference pitchers involved in a major league decision.

That was about the only bright spot for America East yesterday  on the playing fields.  All teams in action were saddled with losses - three on the volleyball circuit and one on the field hockey turf.  

In a matchup of two nationally ranked field hockey teams, #17 Albany played host to #20 Stanford in the New York state capital.  America East field hockey teams have had their way with ranked opponents so far this season but that would not be the case on Wednesday.  The Cardinal scored early in the first half never looking back en route to a 3-2 win over the Danes. 

Three volleyball squads all came out on the short end of of their contests last night including two in five sets.  Hartford lost the opening two sets to Marist, battled back to force a fifth and deciding set but eventually fell to the Red Foxes in Hartford.  Providence and Holy Cross traded the first four sets but the Crusaders pulled away in the fifth to pick up the W. Binghamton played its home opener last night against Niagara suffering a straight-set defeat to remain winless on the young season.  

UMBC's Andrew Bulls

Plenty of men's soccer action tonight as the conference looks to continue its strong start to the season.  Hartford's home opener got washed out by Irene on Saturday but the forecast looks promising tonight for the Hawks as they host Siena.  Senior defender Jorge Rodriguez will not be with the team because he'll be suiting up for the Puerto Rican national team for two  games starting tomorrow.  He is the second Hartford athlete to be called to play for their respective national teams this fall.  Amelia Pereira of the women's team got the call from her native Portugal last week.

Elsewhere on the pitch, UMBC hosts St. Francis on the plush Bermuda grass, New Hampshire welcomes Iona to Durham, Boston U. travels to #17 Monmouth and Trevor Gorman leads his Albany Great Danes against the New Jersey Institute of Technology.  There is one game on the women's soccer schedule tonight when Stony Brook hosts Rhode Island.  And in field hockey, Fairfield travels to Siena.

For other news, check out the link below...

Shepherd hires former UMBC standout Keelan 

America East Daily Word - August 31

Stephanie Gardiner

In 2010, America East field hockey teams scored seven wins against the three BCS conferences ranked 1-2-3 in the RPI rankings (ACC, Big Ten, Big East).

New Hampshire got the conference it's first win against the Big Ten over the weekend.  The Maine Black Bears saw all the fun UNH had when it knocked off the #6 Ohio State Buckeyes, and decided they wanted to join in on that upset parade, this time against the ACC.

Maine traveled down our way yesterday to take on the #14 Eagles of Boston College.  The Black Bears scored the first goal of the day but had to claw back from deficits of 2-1 and 3-2 before they forced overtime in Newton.  Stephanie Gardiner scored with just 1:10 remaining in regulation to force the extra frame.  Late game heroics? I do think so.  

In overtime, freshman Annabelle Hamilton had a career defining goal just three games into her tenure in Orono.  About 2 minutes in, Hamilton knocked home a pass off a penalty corner to give Maine the 4-3 win.  

Two top-15 upsets in less than five days for America East field hockey.  Great start to the season.  

Speaking of great starts, men's soccer squads from all over the conference are off to a blistering opening to the 2011 campaign.  Overall, men's soccer team have a collective 6-2-1 record.  And it kept going yesterday with Vermont traveling to Rhode Island in a match postponed from Sunday.  A 55th minute goal from Catamount senior Yannick Lewis gave Vermont all the offense it would need for the victory.  UVM is now 2-0, with both wins coming on the road.  Last year away from Centennial Field, the Cats were a dismal 1-5-2.

Take one look at the regional men's soccer polls and you'll see that America East teams occupy three slots in the top-10 and two more squads are receiving votes to crack that list.  Binghamton ranks fourth in the northeast region with Boston U. right behind them at No. 5.  UMBC checks in ranked eighth.  The Retrievers, however, are making more noise nationally as they are just two slots away from sliding into the top-25 in the country.  They are receiving the second most votes of schools not currently ranked.  

After their 3-0-1 start to 2011, the Boston U. women also appear in the northeast regional rankings at No. 4.  The Terriers are also getting some love in the national poll but are still on the outside looking in.

Scott Diamond

Former Binghamton pitcher Scott Diamond will once again be on the bump for the Minnesota Twins on Wednesday night.  Diamond, 0-2 in his first two starts with the big club this year, will get his 3rd attempt at his first win against the Chicago White Sox on the South Side.  The southpaw has pitched into the seventh inning in both of his starts since being called up from triple-A Rochester but a lack of offense and some shoddy bullpen work have left him on the wrong side of his two decisions.  Tonight he'll toe the rubber against a former Cy Young Award winner, Jake Peavy.

On the schedule tonight, an America East field hockey has another chance to knock off a nationally ranked opponent this evening, although it won't be an upset.  No. 17 Albany plays host to Pac-12 foe #20 Stanford.  The Cardinal enters the game coming off a loss to UConn while the Danes looked sharp in their 5-0 whacking of Robert Morris on Saturday.

Elsewhere, we've got some volleyball contests around the conference.  Hartford and Binghamton play in their home openers this evening against Marist and Niagara, respectively.  Meanwhile, Providence heads to Worcester, Mass. to take on Holy Cross.   

For more news, check out the link below... 

Adelphi players follow Spallina to Stony Brook

America East Daily Word - August 30

September is just around the corner and things are really starting to pick up around the America East Conference.  Everyone is excited.

Just take a look at that picture to the left.  If Chick-fil-A doesn’t get you excited then you obviously have never experienced the gloriousness of its existence.  But it’s Chick-fil-A on the first day of school!

It doesn’t get much better than that.

Oh, but we will try here on AExtra. 

Students are flooding our nine campuses, student newspapers are back in swing, dining halls are open and the fall athletic schedules are now in full swing. 

Two soccer head coaches got chances to pick up their first wins since taking the reins during the offseason.  We’ll start first in Burlington, where Kristi Lefebvre continued her search for an elusive first win for the lady Catamounts.  Vermont hosted American in a postponed game from Sunday that fell victim to the wrath of Hurricane Irene.  After a scoreless first half, UVM took the lead in the 72^nd minute on a Jill Dellipriscollo header off a corner kick.  That proved to be the difference in this one with Lefebvre getting her first win, a 1-0 shutout over the Eagles. 

UAlbany men’s soccer coach Trevor Gorman had his second shot at picking up his first win for the Great Danes.  Gorman’s squad suffered a 2-1 setback against Hartwick last Friday and had to deal with Hofstra last night in Hempstead, N.Y.  The Danes jumped out early, fell behind after two Pride goals and then battled back to force overtime.  Hofstra scored in the 5^th minute of the extra frame to spoil a solid UAlbany effort, 3-2.  Gorman will have another shot at getting the first-win monkey off his back on Thursday at the New Jersey Institute of Technology.

The UMBC volleyball team continued to flex its muscles against some west coast competition last night.  It took four sets and some seriously long rallies, but the Retrievers rallied from a set down to roll past UC Riverside 3-1 in California.  UMBC wraps up its west coast swing with a 2-2 record.  

In the only other action from last night, Vermont fell to UMass, 4-2, and Drexel downed Fairfield, 2-1, in field hockey.  Callie Sweigart scored twice for the 0-2 Catamounts.  

We’ve got a relatively quiet schedule this evening with only two games on the slate.  In men’s soccer, Vermont and Rhode Island will make up their postponed contest from over the weekend in Rhode Island this afternoon.  Maine field hockey, coming off an 8-0 shellacking of Siena, will head down our way to take on #14 Boston College in Newton. 

In case travel plans didn’t quite work out for you over the weekend (chances are they didn’t) and you weren’t able to catch you favorite team, no sweat.  We’ve got all the highlights here.

For more news check out these links below...

UVM women's soccer defeats American

UNH Notebook

America East Daily Word - August 29

UNH and Maine both had wins this weekend.

We survived Irene here in Boston.  Hopefully other folks had the same fortune. 

I know my hometown of Bennington, Vt., pretty much got washed away.  If you don't know where Bennington is, maybe you saw the video on the Weather Channel of the car floating down the river.  That's Bennington.

Despite the tropical storm, America East squads had a busy weekend and a successful one, at that.  

Field hockey went a combined 6-3 this weekend, a great start to the season.  No team was more impressive, though, than the UNH Wildcats.  The defending regular season champions, New Hampshire started the weekend by shocking No. 6 Ohio State, 3-1, in Columbus on Saturday.  To prove it was no fluke, the Wildcats hung a 5-1 thrashing on Kent State the next day to start the season 2-0.  

We've got more field hockey action today on America East turf.  Vermont plays host to Massachusetts in a 2 p.m. tilt in Burlington.  You can catch that game online here.  Meanwhile, Fairfield looks to grab its second win on the young season when it travels to former America East school, Drexel.  It's 3 p.m. start time in that one from Philly.

Two women's soccer games beat the wrath of Irene yesterday, but neither America East squad was able to beat their opponent.  Stony Brook lost a tough 1-0 decision to James Madison while Binghamton fell to St. Bonaventure by the same score.  The Vermont-American game that got 'Irened' over the weekend will be played today up north in the Queen City and that is the only women's soccer contest on the slate for today.

Over to men's soccer now, first-year head coach Trevor Gorman couldn't get the first-win-monkey off his back in Albany's first match against Hartwick on Friday but he'll get another shot at it tonight.  The Great Danes head to Hofstra to take on the Pride in a contest under the lights.

Volleyball had a tough weekend with only three teams notching ticks in the 'Win' column.  Hartford and Providence each won twice while UMBC earned a straight-set win against Prairie View A&M on Saturday.  Those same Retrievers, who started their season in Long Beach Calif., will conclude their trip tonight with a contest against UC Riverside.  Several players received all-tournament team honors for their play this weekend:  UMBC's Allie Spaay at the Mizuno Invitational, Providence's Lauren Fletcher at the La Salle Invitational, Binghamton's Kristin Hovie at the Mizzou Tigers Invitational and Hartford's Kami Nethersole and Jackie Tamburri at the Army Invitational.  

Kevin Crowley

And of course, we need to update on the basketball teams still playing on their international exhibition tours.  The UNH men wrapped up a 3-1 Canadian trip with a 80-66 win against Bishop's University on Saturday.  In Barcelona, the Boston U. women rebounded after an opening game loss to win two in a row in Spain. The Terriers continue their trip with one final game in Madrid on Wednesday.  Over in France, Jen Rizzotti and the Hartford women closed their tour on Sunday.  

Boston can add another title to its already impressive collection now that the Cannons upended the Hamilton Nationals in the Major League Lacrosse title game yesterday.  The Cannons defeated a squad littered with former America East talent - Stony Brook's Kevin Crowley and Steve Waldeck and Albany's Brett Queener.  Crowley is one of only 3 players in America East history to be named first-team all-conference four times.    

For more news check out the links below:
Binghamton University Results
UVM men's soccer team seeks big season
Diamond can't shake Tigers in second MLB start
  

Saturday Scores

Irene couldn't rain on the parade of many America East teams yesterday. 

Sure the tropical storm caused some rain and lightning delays, left puddles on the turf and did force schedule changes (including a few cancellations)  but we had a full slate of games Saturday afternoon with some big wins for AE squads. 

In what was probably the game of the day, the UNH field hockey team rode three first-half goals to knock off sixth-ranked Ohio State 3-1 in Columbus.  Not bad for a season opening win - defeat a top-10 team on the road and do it conviningly, at that.  The Wildcats won the conference regular season title last year and couldn't have started the 2011 campaign any better.

Elsewhere around the field hockey circuit, America East schools were laying the smackdown on some non-conference foes.  Maine poured it on against Siena, an 8-0 shellacking for the Blackbears over the Saints.  Bucknell proved no match for #19 Boston U. with the Terriers blanking the Bison 5-0.  Albany defeated Robert Morris by the same score and the closest game of the day saw Fairfield win its season opener against St. Joseph's 2-0.  That game put the finishing touches on an undefeated day for AE field hockey.

We had a milestone reached and a record broken yesterday in men's and women's soccer action. On the women's side, Nancy Feldmen, Boston U. head coach, won her 300th career game as her Terriers defeated Loyola (Md.) 3-0 on a sloppy Nickerson Field.  It was Feldmen's 208th win at Boston U. as she collected 75 wins at Plymouth State and 17 at Lake Forest before taking the reins here in Boston.  Taylor Krebs scored her second goal in as many days to lead the Terrier attack. 

The one other game on the women's side, Maine and Fairleigh Dickson, was "Irened," or cancelled.   

In men's action, preseason All-American Andrew Bulls set the UMBC all-time record for assists when he set up Jordan Becker for the Retrievers lone goal in their 1-0 win over Mount St. Mary's.  UMBC stretches its unbeaten streak to 10 games. 
Stony Brook battled Lehigh to a 1-1 draw while Hartford and Fordham were taken off the field in the 60th minute and the game was recorded as a "no contest." 

America East volleyball has struggled during its opening weekend  of play trying to grab wins against some national powers.  All seven volleyball teams were in action but only Providence, UMBC and Hartford could pick up wins yesterday.  The Hawks and Friars each won twice, while UMBC won its night cap against Prairie View A&M. 

Plenty of games have been cancelled for today with Irene set to bring more havok along the east coast.  We aren't sure how much rain we'll get here in Boston but one this is for sure - I am not envious of the equipment managers that get to deal with the smelly, rain soaked gear on Monday. 
I'll leave the laundry to them.

Today's Schedule
Field Hockey - UNH vs. Kent State (at Columbus, Ohio)
Women's Soccer - Stony Brook at James Madison
                               Binghamton at St. Bonaventure