America East Daily Word - October 14

Jen Rizzotti

What a day in the America East Conference! Media Day at the Connecticut State Capitol is in the books so let’s take a look at yesterday’s events…

Preseason polls leaked throughout the morning before their official unveiling later in the afternoon. Boston University, under the new direction of Joe Jones, grabbed the first spot in the men’s poll while UMBC earned the preseason favorite status for the women. Retrievers head coach Phil Stern addressed the room…

“UMBC will not be joining the ACC or Big East,” Stern joked.

Speaking of conference realignment, Mark McGuire at the Albany Times Union wrote a column yesterday about the changing landscape of college athletics.  He spoke at length about Albany and the America East.

The preseason all-conference teams were also released. All five all-conference selections from last year make up this year’s women’s squad. The men’s team - very guard heavy - features the league’s active scoring leader and last season’s rookie of the year.

Amy Huchthausen

New America East commissioner Amy Huchthausen addressed those in attendance, as well, saying she is excited and thankful to be the conference’s next commissioner.

You can read all the full releases from the day at AmericaEast.com.

While media day stole the spotlight yesterday, women’ soccer teams continued to battle it out on the pitch with playoff scenarios starting to take shape.

Let’s start with the top two teams, No. 20 Boston U. and Hartford. The Terriers took on Stony Brook, two players recorded their first goals of the season and Boston U. moved to 6-0-0 in America East. Hartford, still unbeaten on the season, scored three goals for the third consecutive game and got another shutout performance from Erin Quinlan in net to improve to 5-0-0 in conference. Vermont, which would host a playoff game if the postseason started today, scored three times in a five-minute span in the second half to defeat New Hampshire in Burlington. Lastly, Albany won its third straight game, 1-0, over UMBC.

We’ve got a big game tonight in Baltimore in men’s soccer. It’s the rematch of last year’s championship game between UMBC and New Hampshire. It will be televised live on the Fox Soccer Channel. UMBC currently sits atop the conference standings while UNH is a few stops down in fourth. Last year’s title game went to a shootout after 110 minutes of scoreless soccer. The Retrievers ended up winning on penalty kicks.

For this weekend’s full schedule, AmericaEast.com has everything you need and here are a few more links from around the conference…

 
Albany Times Union: Coaches' ranking motivator for Danes
Troy Record: UAlbany picked fourth by A-East coaches
Press and Sun Bulletin: BU men picked last; Holmes honored
Hartford Courant: Harrison hosts breakfast for Hartford SAAC
Hartford Courtant: America East basketball preseason polls
Bangor Daily News: UMaine men picked sixth, women ninth
Baltimore Sun: UMBC women picked first, players honored
News Day: With Brenton back, Pikiell has high hopes
Burlington Free Press: UVM basketball teams picked to finished third, seventh

Stony Brook's men soccer stays undefeated in America East play

The Seawolves’ mens soccer team remained undefeated in America East play with a scoreless tie against visiting Albany on Wednesday night.

Stony Brook (6-4-3) was able to stay atop the America East at 2-0-1, earning a valuable point with the tie. The Albany Great Danes are now 4-6-2 and is still without a win in the league at 0-1-2.

SBU’s best chance to score was in the 23rd minute when Junior Leonardo Fernandez’s shot hit the crossbar, Senior Serigne Sylla found the back of the net off the rebound but it was called off for offsides.

Just before the first overtime, Albany was able to apply pressure but to no avail when their two shots on goal in a row hit off the crossbar. The Seawolves defense stepped it up at the end of the second period and into overtime with America East player of the game Kyle Mcturk (Senior Captain) leading the way.

Albany’s goalkeeper Adrian Foncette finished with three saves and Seawolves junior goalkeeper Stefan Manz (Bronx, N.Y.) finished with two. Manz posted his 12th career shutout, 3rd of this season.

Binghamton's slide continues as conference mark drops to 0-3

Still unable to get its conference season off the ground, the Binghamton University men’s soccer team fell to University of Maryland, Baltimore County on Tuesday night at home 1-0.

UMBC (6-3-3, 3-0-0 America East) was awarded a penalty kick in the first half and Pete Caringi fired past sophomore goalie Chris Hayen for the game’s lone goal. The shot was UMBC’s one and only legitimate chance for the game as the Retrievers finished the full 90 minutes with just two official shots.

Binghamton (4-8, 0-3 AE), on the other hand, saw plenty of opportunities go awry throughout the match. Junior forward Jake Keegan was unable to capitalize on numerous chances throughout the game, but was unable to explain why.

“Sometimes they go in and sometimes they don’t,” he said.

Head coach Paul Marco shared the sentiment.

“Soccer’s one of those cruel sports where you can dominate a team and if you don’t put it in the back of the net, you don’t get the points,” he said.

Binghamton did indeed dominate UMBC on paper as BU’s 11 shots far overshadowed the Retrievers’ two.

But unfortunately for the Bearcats, the game isn’t played on paper.

The team will play host to University at Albany on Saturday night in what could spell midnight on BU’s season.

Kickoff is set for 7 p.m.

Aaron Gottlieb

Assistant Sports Editor, Pipe Dream

Binghamton University '12

America East Daily Word - October 12

In the immortal words of the infamous Annie, “Tomorrow…you’re only a day away!” 

We actually started singing that in the office this morning because tomorrow, drum roll please, is the official start of basketball season. 

Our annual Tip-Off Event tomorrow is at the Connecticut State Capitol in Hartford. Preseason polls for men’s and women’s basketball are announced, preseason all-conference squads are revealed; the tone is set for the rest of the season by tomorrow’s festivities. 

There will be plenty of high profile guest speakers, media personnel from around the conference will be in attendance, the coaches from preseason favorites will also take the mic and there will be highlight reels galore.

You can follow all the day’s action on the @AmericaEast Twitter feed or by following our live blog and chatting with me throughout the day about the season, the conference and anything basketball.

Boston U.'s Joe Jones

Log on to Twitter right now and submit us your preseason polls and we will retweet them to our followers.

We’ll stay on the basketball scene, heading over to Boston University for the inaugural State of Massachusetts Basketball Media Day. The six Division I men’s basketball programs in the state descended upon Boston U. yesterday to speak with media about the season.

In case you haven’t heard, the NBA cancelled the first two weeks of the regular season on Monday. No Boston Celtics for a while. Perhaps, that’s not terrible news for the local colleges. Terrier head coach Joe Jones chatted with Dan Duggan of the Boston Herald suggesting that maybe the NBA fans would check out some college games now that the lockout looks like it will continue to drag on. 

Binghamton hosted its annual basketball media day yesterday. Local news outlets were there to meet the 2011-2012 Bearcats. 

UMBC's Dan Louisignau

Back to the action last night on the soccer pitch, now, where four men’s soccer teams jockeyed for position in the conference standings. New Hampshire hosted Hartford in a battle of two teams right in the middle of the pack. UNH grabbed an early lead but the Hawks tallied the equalizer in the second half and the game would end in a 1-1 draw. UMBC looked to stay perfect in conference, taking on Binghamton. The Bearcats had multiple scoring opportunities – quality looksat net – but UMBC’s Pete Caringi III scored on a PK in the 41^st minute for the only goal of the night in a 1-0 Retriever win. 

Two more men’s soccer matches this evening. An intriguing battle in Burlington, where Vermont hosts Boston U. Both the Catamounts and Terriers are coming off tough one-goal defeats. Also, Albany will travel to Stony Brook to take on the Seawolves. 

And lastly, one final volleyball non-conference match, Stony Brook plays Long Island on the road.

Daily Free Press: Consistent Luscinski leads the way
Daily Free Press: Don't bring a cat to a dog fight
Vermont Cynic: Athlete Spotlight - Joe Losier

America East Daily Word - October 11

The America East Tip-Off Luncheon is just two days away when we will unveil our preseason polls for men’s and women’s basketball and the preseason all-conference teams. There will be a live blog that fans can log in to for a live chat about the event and the season ahead. It is sure to be a great day.

Speaking of great days, what a beautiful day for a soccer match.  We’ve got two matches today, both on the men’s side. New Hampshire is hosting Hartford as we post the Daily Word and you can follow that game live, here. Later this evening, UMBC travels to Binghamton to take on the Bearcats. Binghamton is still looking for its first conference win of the season while UMBC is tied for the league lead.

Yesterday, the tenth-ranked Maine field hockey team clashed with non-conference foe Holy Cross trying to rebound from its first loss since game one of the season. The Black Bears did just that, scoring 5 unanswered goals to down the Crusaders 5-1 in Orono.

We’ve also got your weekend highlights, great games and some great goals from around the conference. From soccer to volleyball, Stony Brook to Orono, we’ve got them all here in the Daily Word.

Portland Press Herald: Field hockey thumps Holy Cross
Portsmouth Press Herald: Frates is player of the week
Daily Free Press: Men's soccer trying to retrieve answers
Daily Free Press: Same story, different chapter for BU offense
Daily Free Press: Yet another sweep for field hockey
Pipe Dream: Women's soccer falls to Boston
Pipe Dream: Volleyball takes down Friars
Pipe Dream: UNH deals Binghamton its second AE loss
Retriever Weekly: Men's soccer goes national
Retriever Weekly: Chattin' With: Talor Tadena
Retriever Weekly: Spotlight: Lauren Kadet
Retriever Weekly: Volleyball looks to bounce back at homecoming
Retriever Weekly: AOTW: Kinsgley Onwuka
Retriever Weekly: Midnight Madness comes to UMBC

America East Daily Word - October 10

Vermont's Drew Philie

If you weren’t able to get down to Braintree, Mass. yesterday for the Catamount Classic, then you missed a special event. Not only did 16 Division I men’s and women’s lacrosse teams flock to the Thayer Academy turf fields, but the event raised a significant amount of money for cancer research at the Dana Farber Institute. In its four years of existence, the Classic has raised over $100,000 for cancer research.

It was a beautiful day for lacrosse, but the day was about something much bigger than that. This was certainly evidenced by the fact that every single player wore the same pair of Catamount Classic socks during each game. 

InsideLacrosse writer Brian Foley got down to Braintree to take in the action, writing up a team by team recap of the day’s events.  He highlights the Vermont and Hartford men’s squads. The women’s teams from Vermont and Boston University also competed. 

In addition, UVM's game against UMass was played with some experimental rules, including a shot clock.  UMBC battled Georgetown over the weekend and those two teams experimented with some new rules, as well.  Coaches talked with Inside Lacrosse about the changes.

Back to in-season sports yesterday, eight women’s soccer teams collided in another jam packed Sunday of conference play. 

We’ll start in Boston where the Terriers looked for their seventh straight win against a Binghamton team, whose seven losses have all been by the score of 1-0.  That wasn’t the case on Sunday but the bad news for the Bearcats is that it got much worse. Jess Luscinski tallied four points on a goal and two assists to lead Boston U. to a 4-1 win.  The Terriers improve to 5-0 in America East play and Binghamton slips to 1-3-1.

Elsewhere on the pitch, Vermont surrendered a late goal to Albany, falling to the Danes 2-1 in Burlington.  The same thing happened to UMBC, which allowed an 86^th minute tally from Maine in a 2-1 loss.  UMBC is still winless on the season. Lastly, Stony Brook defeated New Hampshire, 1-0.  That is the Wildcats’ second straight one-goal defeat and the Seawolves second win in conference.

Plenty of field hockey action yesterday, as well. No. 10 Maine, riding an eleven game win streak, hosted No. 19 Boston U. in key conference matchup.  The Terriers scored twice in a short span in the first half and that was enough to knock off the high-powered Black Bears, 2-1.  This was the first loss for Maine since day one of the season when Northeastern saddled the ladies from Orono with a 3-2 loss.  No. 12 New Hampshire battled No. 7 Stanford in a tremendous matchup in Durham. Whitney Frates scored three goals and dished out an assist, while Hayley Rausch scored twice in the Wildcat’s 6-3 ambush of Stanford.  No. 16 Albany needed penalty strokes to dispatch of UMass, defeating the Minutewomen 2-0 in the deciding shootout.  And finally, Brown defeated Fairfield, 3-1.

Boston U.'s Katie Matthews

In volleyball, New Hampshire stayed unbeaten in conference action yesterday with a convincing 3-1 win over UMBC in Durham.  The Wildcats started the season 0-14 but have gone 5-1 since then and 4-0 in conference.  Stony Brook rebounded from a defeat to those same Wildcats by defeating Hartford in five sets.  Binghamton earned its first conference win of the season setting aside Providence, 3-1.

The New England Cross Country Championships were also held this weekend at Franklin Park right here in Boston and a few America East standout harriers turned in some impressive performances.  Boston U.’s Katie Matthews won the women’s race just ahead of Vermont’s Morgan Powers, who placed second.  For the men, Maine’s Riley Masters ran to a second-place finish and Boston U.’s Rich Peters finished two spots behind him in fourth.

For all of your conference news and tonight’s full schedule, head over to AmericaEast.com.

Portsmouth Press Herald: UNH field hockey beats No. 7 Stanford
Stony Brook Statesman: Men's soccer defeats Vermont