Make it Five: BU Wins Another AE Title
from press releases
BOSTON - The two-time America East Player of the
Year, Boston University's Sarah Dalton, led the Terriers to their
fifth-straight conference championship Saturday afternoon at
Nickerson Field in Boston. Boston U., with the 16-6 victory over
University of New Hampshire, earned America East's automatic bid to
the NCAA Championship and will learn of its next match-up when the
official bracket is announced Sunday night at 10 p.m. on CBS
College Sports Network.
Dalton, whose six goals against the Wildcats tied a single-game
America East Championship record, broke the tournament record for
most goals with 11 tallies. The previous record, held by Delaware's
Megan Fortunato, stood for a decade before Saturday. For her
efforts, Dalton was named the tournament's Most Outstanding
Player.
Joining Dalton on the All-Championship Team from Boston U. (15-3
overall record) were defensive stalwarts Kelly Munroe and Corcoran
Downey, and attacker McKinley Curro. Munroe and Downey, together
with the rest of the Terrier defense, held opponents to just 13
goals over two games in the tournament, while Curro finished the
championship with 12 points on five goals and seven assists. Curro
tied the tournament record of seven assists, which she also
accomplished in 2007 as a rookie and which was originally set by
former Terrier Alyssa Trudel in 2003.
A little over two minutes into the game, Boston U. senior Steph
Walker started the scoring off a pass from Xan Weitzel, one of
Weitzel's four assists on the afternoon. New Hampshire (12-7) began
their attempt to regain the goal right away, taking control of the
ball and earning a free position shot. Shaunna Kaplan took the
shot, but it was saved by Terrier goalkeeper Rachel Klein.
The Wildcats kept control of the ball and about 30 seconds later,
got on the scoreboard. First-team all-conference member Sarah Von
Bargen, who scored her 200th career point for UNH in the semifinals
Thursday, got a restart behind the Boston U. net, quickly circled
around Klein's right and side-armed a shot to the back of the net
to knot the score at 1-1.
From there though, the Terriers ran away, netting eight straight
goals before the Wildcats could respond again with under five
minutes left in the half. Dalton scored her first tally of the game
at 24:29 and Curro followed suit 41 seconds later with a nice
fake-out, spin move to get past the defenders and put the ball in
the back of the net.
At 18:52, Walker scored her second goal of the game on a
free-position shot at the 8m circle, giving the Terriers a 4-1
lead. Dalton and Curro each struck twice more in the nine-goal run.
Dalton's goal with 2:35 left on the clock in the first frame was
acrobatic, the senior falling forward and hitting the ground as her
shot sailed past UNH goalie Kate Gunts. That goal made the score
10-3, after Von Bargen and freshman Kate Keagins each tallied goals
to stop the Boston U. attack, and is where the score stood at the
intermission.
In between Boston U. goals, the Wildcats did get 10 shots off in
the first half, including two shots by Deb Dale and Von Bargen that
hit the top post. Klein made four saves in the first 30 minutes en
route to her eight saves for the day.
The Terriers started the second stanza off with two more goals--the
fourth of the day from Dalton and one from Erica Baumgartner, who
had scored a career-high four goals in the semifinal against
Vermont. Von Bargen completed her hat trick at 22:40 with a
free-position goal that made the score 12-4 in favor of the
defending champion Terriers.
Rachel Collins got into the mix for Boston U. with her first of two
tallies at the 14:19 mark. She took a pass from Baumgartner to
complete the play. Dalton once again struck twice more to round out
her scoring, tallying her sixth and final goal at 8:32 and forcing
a UNH timeout.
Coming out of the timeout, Wildcat head coach Sandy Bridgeman
switched out goalie Gunts with Nikki Hume. Hume watched as her
teammates Kaplan and Hayley Rausch each notched unassisted goals
within a minute of each other at 7:35 and 6:40 to pull the Wildcats
to within nine goals, 15-6. Collins' second goal of the afternoon
at 3:50 finished off the day's scoring, made the score 16-6, and
allowed the clock to keep running down without any stops to
00:00.
Draw controls were even at 12 for each team, while Boston U. just
edged on UNH in ground balls, 15-13. Boston U. finished with 26
shots to UNH's 20 shots. The rookie tandem of Gunts and Hume in net
for the Wildcats combined for five saves, while Klein made eight on
her end of the field.
