University of Massachusets Athletics
Women's Lacrosse Faces Syracuse On Wednesday Night
March 15, 2006 | Women's Lacrosse
March 15, 2006
Minutewomen Head To No. 13 Syracuse On Wednesday Night
• UMass faces No. 13 Syracuse on Wednesday night at 7:00 p.m. in the Carrier Dome. This will be the third ranked opponent the Minutewomen have faced during their non-conference season. The game is a return home for head coach Carrie Bolduc who played for the Orange from 1998-99. A two-time team captain, Bolduc played for current Syracuse head coach Lisa Miller and was a member of the inaugural team. The game is also a chance for current Minutewomen Kristina Twichell (Fayetteville, N.Y.) and Julie Papaleo (Manlius, N.Y.) to return home.
• The Minutewomen enter the game with a 2-3 record after last minute heroics from Jeannette Viallapiano (Ocean Township, N.J.) and Melynda Zwick (Holland, Pa.) netted UMass an 11-10 win over Albany last Saturday. Syracuse is coming off a tough home loss to No. 9 Georgetown on Saturday. The Orange are 3-2 overall.
• UMass is led by sophomore Kathleen Typadis (Medfield, Mass.) and senior Kerri Connerty (Nashua, N.H.). Typadis leads the team with 12 points on 12 goals, while Connerty is second with 11 points on five goals and a team-high six assists. Freshman Kaytlin McCormick (Saratoga Springs, N.Y.) is third with eight goals and an assist, while fellow freshman Meghan Reddy (Salem, N.H.) has scored a point in every game so far with four goals and two assists.
The Series With Syracuse
• UMass is still searching for a win in the all-time series against Syracuse. The Orange hold a perfect 8-0 record against the Minutewomen in a series that began in 1998.
• Last season, the Orange picked up a 17-8 win over UMass at Garber Field. The game was played tightly in the first half as Syracuse took a 7-5 lead into halftime. After the break, however, SU scored 10 goals to just three for UMass to cruise in the victory. Caitlyn Dragon paced all players with four goals and two assists, while Monica Joines add four goals and Allison Furstenburg tallied three more. UMass was led by Melynda Zwick who had three goals and Samantha Sepulveda who added two goals and an assist.
• If history is on UMass' side, then Wednesday night's game could be a close one. In the four previous meetings in the Carrier Dome, three have been decided by three goals or fewer including one-goal game decisions in 1999 and 2004 - the last time UMass played in Syracuse.
A New York State Of Mind
• Despite being the flagship school of Massachusetts, the Minutewomen have several team members who hail from the Empire State. New York is the most represented state on this season's roster as seven team members call the state home.
• Head coach Carrie Bolduc is an Albany native, while assistant coach Jen Nardi is from Valley Cottage, N.Y.
• Along with Twichell and Papaleo, Jackie Rosenzweig, Alana Jakas, Samantha Sepulveda, Krissy Anderson, and Katylin McCormick are all from New York.
Happy 25th Anniversary!
• It was 25 years ago that UMass won the first ever NCAA Championship in women's lacrosse. The Minutewomen posted a 10-0 record during the 1982 season and defeated Trenton State for the title.
• During their title run, UMass defeated Boston University (18-0), Harvard (5-3), Dartmouth (13-3), New Hampshire (5-4), and Boston College (10-2).
• The Minutewomen followed their NCAA title with a pair of fourth-place finishes in 1983 and 1984.
Connerty Climbing The Charts
• Senior Kerri Connerty (Nashua, N.H.) continues to move up the all-time charts in UMass scoring history. Her three assist effort at Albany (3/11) gives her 36 for her career which ties her with Linda Haytayan-Nelson for ninth all-time. On her current pace, Connerty is projected to finish as high as fifth all-time in the category. Cari Nickerson is the all-time career leader in assists with 106. After her three-goal, one assist outburst in the win over Harvard (3/4), Connerty now has 72 goals and 108 career points. She needs just seven points and 17 goals to move into the all-time top-10 charts of each category, respectively.
• Connerty's 17-game scoring streak came to an end at Dartmouth (3/8). In her career she has tallied 16 multi-point games and seven hat tricks.
Nesbitt Anchors Defense
• Senior Jackie Nesbitt (Springfield, Pa.) has been a mainstay over her career in the defensive back. Wednesday night will mark her 37th consecutive start for UMass in 55 career games. In that span she has collected 113 groundballs, 54 draw controls and caused 56 turnovers. She has also tallied 12 goals and four assists for 16 points.
• Nesbitt ranks among the all-time top UMass defenders in groundballs, caused turnovers, and draw controls (those became official NCAA statistics in 2001). She ranks third all-time in groundballs, sixth in draw controls, and fifth in caused turnovers.
• She needs just two groundballs to move into second all-time at UMass.
McCormick Named A-10 Rookie Of the Week (2/27)
• Freshman Kaytlin McCormick (Saratoga Springs, N.Y.) was been named the Atlantic 10 Lacrosse Rookie of the Week (2/27) following her performance at Holy Cross. McCormick tallied four goals, three in the second half, on five shots to lead the Minutewomen in her collegiate debut. Despite playing the game in nearly two inches of snow, she also collected four groundballs and caused three turnovers.
• McCormick was a 2005 graduate of Saratoga Springs where she was a two-time U.S. Lacrosse All-American. She also earned the honor for field hockey (2005) and was a First-Team Section 2 honoree in both field hockey and lacrosse (2004, 2005). She became the first female student-athlete at Saratoga Springs to be named a two-time All-American as well as Section 2 MVP.
UMass Among The Atlantic 10
• UMass boasts the second best all-time record in league play among conference members. Temple holds the best record among league rivals at 41-3, while UMass is 28-16.
• UMass finished third in the conferencein 2004 with a 4-3 record.
• The Minutewomen are now 7-0 all-time in their league-opener after defeating La Salle in 2005.
• The Minutewomen were picked to finish second in the conference this year by the league's coaches in a preseason vote.
• In the six years affiliated with the league, UMass has one regular season title and one tournament title to its name (both in 2000).
UMass Picked Sixth In Atlantic 10 Preseason coaches Poll
• The women's lacrosse team was picked to finish sixth in the Atlantic 10 Conference entering the 2006 season as voted on by the league's coaches in a preseason poll. The Minutewomen tied for seventh in the A-10 in 2005 with a 1-6 conference mark.
• Temple was the top pick in the league, followed by the Richmond, George Washington and Duquesne/St. Bonaventure. La Salle and Saint Joseph's were picked to finish seventh and eighth, respectively.
• With the exception of 2005, UMass has finished no lower than third since 1999 in the conference highlighted by a tournament crown in 2000.
No Easy Schedule
• Six of this season's 17 scheduled opponents are ranked or receiving votes in the IWLCA Top-20 Poll: #3 Dartmouth, #9 Boston University, #13 Syracuse, #16 Hofstra, and #20 Temple. Richmond is just three votes shy of being ranked, but the Spiders are receiving votes.