#4 Franklin
Pierce Top Seed in NE-10 Women’s Tournament RINDGE, N.H. (October 28, 2002) - The Franklin Pierce women’s soccer team, ranked No. 4 in the most recent National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA)/adidas Division II poll, is the top seed in this week’s Northeast-10 Conference Tournament and will host eighth-seeded Pace University in quarterfinal round action Tuesday, October 29, on Crystal Field at 2 p.m. Franklin Pierce (13-0-2, 12-0-2 NE-10) sewed up its second-straight regular season Northeast-10 title last week, marking its eighth regular season conference championship over the past nine years, a string that includes six-straight New England Collegiate Conference titles before joining the Northeast-10 in 2000. The Ravens will be looking to claim their third-straight NE-10 Tournament title in as many years in the Conference this week. Crystal Field has not been a kind place for Franklin Pierce postseason opponents as the Ravens are 14-0 all-time in postseason matches at home, outscoring the opposition in those matches by a combined 55-5. The Ravens are 2-0 in two previous Northeast-10 Tournament home matches, having claimed quarterfinal victories over Saint Michael’s College each of the last two seasons by identical 4-0 margins. Tomorrow will mark the first-ever postseason meeting between Franklin Pierce and Pace. The Ravens only two blemishes on their record this fall have come at home. Then No. 18 Merrimack College snapped the Ravens 29-match Conference winning streak with a 1-1 tie on October 2. One week later, Bryant College claimed a 1-1 draw with the then No. 2-ranked Ravens.
Franklin Pierce, ranked first in the New England region all season, has used a stout defensive effort to be successful this season. The Ravens starting back line of senior captain Nicole Cheadle (West Chester, Pa./Henderson), juniors Alison Considine (Needham, Mass./Needham) and Alana Sullivan (Dorchester, Mass./Mitchell College) and sophomores Martta Makila (Vantaa, Finland) and Laura King (Bridgewater, Mass./Bridgewater-Raynham) have yielded a Conference-low 0.40 (6 gls) goals per match this fall, which also ranks eighth in Division II. The Ravens opened the season with a school-record six-straight shutouts.
Junior goalkeeper Aase Kibsgaard (Korgen, Norway), a transfer from Champlain College, leads the Northeast-10 and ranks 11th in Division II with a 0.44 goals against average to go along with a .824 save percentage. She enters the Conference Tournament ranked eighth in program history with her seven shutouts this fall. Leading the top offense in the Conference, scoring 3.60 goals per match (13th in Division II), is sophomore Meghan Welcome (Haverhill, Mass./Haverhill) with an NE-10 leading 40 points and 17 goals (seven game winners) to go along with six assists. Her 40 points (15th in Division II) this season is just one point shy of the program’s single-season record for a US-born player set by Beth Ondrick in 1990. Capable of playing anywhere on the field, Welcome has been primarily used up front for the Ravens this fall after splitting time between left back and left midfield as a redshirt freshman last year to earn second team All-Conference and NE-10 Tournament MVP honors.
Senior captain Anumari Ylesmaki (Vantaa, Finland), the 2001 Northeast-10 Defensive Player of the Year, also moved into a more offensive role this season in the Franklin Pierce midfield. She ranks second on the team with 23 points, netting eight goals and dishing seven assists. Classmate and fellow tri-captain Angela Verdoes (Katwijk Aan Zee, Holland) has shaken off some early season injuries and totaled 21 points with nine goals and three assists. She currently ranks sixth in program history with 136 career points, seventh all-time with 47 career goals and her 42 career assists ranks fifth all-time.
Senior Andrea Caesar (Visby, Sweden) has returned to her 2000 form in which she earned first team All-NE-10 accolades. She has been the key playmaker for the Ravens this fall with a team-best eight assists, which ranks second in the NE-10, to go along with five goals for 18 points. Classmate Kamille Rosenfalck (Borup, Denmark) has chipped in seven helpers. Tomorrow will mark just the fourth meeting all-time between Franklin Pierce and Pace. The Ravens hold a 3-0 advantage in the series, out-scoring the Setters by a combined 13-0 in those matches. Franklin Pierce claimed a 2-0 decision over Pace in their regular season meeting on October 5 in Briarcliff, N.Y. Verdoes played a role in both Ravens markers, assisting on the game winner by freshman Elizabeth Allen (Durham, N.H./Oyster River) in the 37th minute, then netting an insurance marker, assisted by junior Jillian Tente (Wakefield, R.I./South Kingstown), in the 86th. Kibsgaard totaled a career-high five saves in preserving her sixth shutout of the season. Pace (10-7-1, 6-7-1 NE-10), ranked eighth in the New England region, enters the postseason on a high note having won five-straight matches, including a 4-1 win on Saturday against Bryant to clinch its second postseason berth in the program’s brief five-year history. The Setters earned an ECAC Tournament bid last fall, but will be making its first Conference tournament appearance tomorrow. The Setters are led on offense by senior Danielle LaSalle, sophomores Kerri Kaylor (Bethel, Conn./Bethel) and Angela Talucci and freshman Natalie Askins who have all totaled 13 points this season. Kaylor has netted a team-best six goals to go along with one assist, while LaSalle, Talucci and Askins have each registered five goals and three assists. Freshman Ria Carroll has seen the majority of minutes in goal for Pace and ranks third in the Conference with a 0.99 GAA to go along with an .877 save percentage and four shutouts. The winner of tomorrow’s quarterfinal match will advance to the Conference semifinals, hosted by Bryant College in Smithfield, R.I., on Saturday, and face the winner of tomorrow’s match between fifth-seeded Southern Connecticut State University and fourth-seeded Bentley College (Waltham, Mass., 2 p.m.) at 11 a.m. The NE-10 Championship match will be at Bryant on Sunday at 1 p.m. 2002 Northeast-10 Conference Women’s Soccer Championship QUARTERFINALS: SEMIFINALS: CHAMPIONSHIP: |
