IT IS PLAYOFF TIME….and the women
and men's soccer teams are ready to challenge for the Liberty League
tournament championship and the right to represent the league in the upcoming
NCAA playoffs. Also on tap this weekend
is the Liberty League women's volleyball tournament, which will be held
at Vassar College.
The second-seeded Dutchwomen (16-1-1//6-1) travel to meet
No. 3 William Smith (12-2-2/5-2) on Friday, November 5 at 1:30 at Hamilton. The top-seeded Continentals (12-1-1/6-0-1)
take on No. 4 Skidmore (13-4-1/4-2-1) Friday at 11 a.m. The championship is set for Saturday at 1
p.m. at Hamilton. Union is looking for
its third consecutive league tournament title, which would ensure the Garnet's
sixth-straight NCAA appearance.
The Dutchwomen go into the tournament riding a 10-game win
streak.
Head coach Jeff Guinn's the third-seeded Dutchmen (10-6-1/4-2-1) are making their
first-ever Liberty League postseason appearance and will take on No. 2 Hamilton
(10-3-1/4-2-1) on Friday at 1:30 at top-seeded St. Lawrence (14-2/7-0), which
battles No. 4 Rensselaer (9-5-3/4-3) at 11 a.m. The championship is set for Saturday at noon at St. Lawrence.
The Dutchmen are 5-0-1 in their last six games.
The volleyball, which is 12-15, is seeded third in the
league event and will open its bid for the circuit's tournament championship
and automatic berth in the NCAA's on Friday against host Vassar (13-17), which
is seeded second, at 4 p.m. The
Dutchwomen take on No. 4 Clarkson (20-9) at 8 p.m. before meeting top-seeded
Skidmore (25-8) on Saturday at 11 a.m.
Union's final game will be against No. 5 St. Lawrence (13-17) at 1 p.m.
Football, while still playing in the regular season,
is in a playoff game of its own…of sorts.
The Dutchmen, 5-0 in the Liberty League, travel to meet 5-0 Hobart on
Saturday at 1 p.m. Whichever team
wins that game will represent the Liberty League in the upcoming NCAA
playoffs. This season's addition of
Kings Point, Coast Guard and WPI gives the conference enough members to qualify
for an automatic berth. Union will finish
the regular season on November 13 at 1 p.m. at Rensselaer for the annual battle
for the “Dutchman Shoes Trophy” while Hobart concludes its regular season at
home against Rochester.
The women's soccer team is looking for its
third-straight conference title and sixth-straight NCAA berth. Head coach Brian Speck has led the
Dutchwomen to their eighth-straight season in which they have won at least 12
games. This year the team finished the
regular season at 16-1-1 despite losing seven seniors, including five starters,
from last year's 19-2-1 NCAA team. The
Dutchwomen are looking for their sixth-straight trip to the NCAAs. Now in his 10th season, Coach Speck has an
overall record of 145-34-13.
“William Smith is as usual, a well-coached team,” explained
Speck. “They defend very well and are
have excellent team organization.
Hamilton, which has beaten us the last two years, is a young group that
has a lot of energy and enthusiasm and Skidmore is a young team that benefits
from training and playing on turf.”
Junior Cassandra Mariani (17 goals 7 assists 41 points) and
senior Brittany Cressman (13-15-41) finished the regular-season tied for the
league scoring championship. Junior.
Erika Eisenhut (8-8-24) was fifth.
“We're dangerous up front and we have been finishing our
opportunities much better in the last couple of weeks than we did at the start
of the season,” said Speck of his offense, which goes into the tournament
having scored 63 overall goals and 27 league markers, both Liberty League
highs.
Junior goaltender Julie Gawronski who was named the Liberty
League's Defensive Performer of the week twice this year, leads the league in
overall shutouts, as well as in goals against average. She is seventh in saves and 10th in saves
per game. Against Liberty League
opponents, Julie is second in shutouts, tied for sixth in saves and is eighth
in saves per game. Julie, who has a three-year record of 41-6-1, broke the
program's standard of 40 set by Shannon Powers, from 1996 through 1999. She also has 24 career shutouts to tie the
mark of Carolyn Stead, which was established between 1999 and 2002. Her 14 shutouts this year is a Union
single-season record. Last season she
posted an overall record of 19-2-1, a Union standard for wins in a season.
The Dutchmen posted their fourth-straight
winning season since 1983, '84,'85 and 1986. Freshman
Chris Poey leads the team with seven goals and 14 points while seniors Jeff
Marcoux (4-2-10) and Mike Carey (3-4-10) are next.
“The key for us is to continue the
defensive focus that has us unbeaten in our last six games,” said head coach
Jeff Guinn. “That starts with good ball
pressure from all of our players…forwards through defenders. In terms of winning these games, you need
your players to be relaxed offensively so you can possess the ball and finish
our chances when they come.”
Matt Mayerhofer, who took over in
goal in the middle of the seventh game of the season when four-year starter
Kevin O'Connor went down with a season-ending injury, is 5-3-1 with five shutouts. He is a junior who is a converted
defenseman.
“I can't say enough about matt and
the job he has done in the goal,” said Guinn.
“He took the role and has done better than anyone could have hoped. Ryan McAleese and Matt Acciani and our other
backs have really limited the opponents scoring chances, which has enabled us to be
successful down the stretch. Dane Mellon has been a great addition in the
middle of the field and has become one of our more valuable and important
players. He has really helped us be a team that can keep the ball. Mike Carey
has been really dangerous and creative.
The statistics don't show it, but he has attracted a lot of attention
from other teams' best defenders. Chris
Poey has had an outstanding season, especially during the second half of the
year.”
Guinn
feels that St. Lawrence is the most talented team in the tournament, that
Hamilton is very athletic, aggressive and fast up front, and that Rensselaer is
a technically solid team.
“I
don't think we are going to feel a lot of tournament pressure, but we'll see at
kickoff time on Friday,” explained Guinn.
“We are confident we can play with Hamilton (Union lost in double OT
against the Continentals) the day after we lost Kevin O Connor. I think we feel we are a better team than a
month ago and I believe our players are just excited that they met their goal
of getting into the playoffs and that they have another opportunity to play a
big game.”
The volleyball team is led by senior Jess Meliosky, who tops the Dutchwomen in
kills (284) and blocks (46) and is second in assists with 41. Junior Suzy Barbaritz has 996 assists, and
average of 10.6 a game; with senior Ashley Clark is second in kills with 260
and senior Susan Gestwick second in blocks with 40.
Sophomore Erika Selli leads the
team with 385 digs and is followed by junior Stephanie Schuman, who has 211.
The football team, which broke into the Upstate New York poll for the first
time this year (at No. 5) is meeting the state's second-best squad. The Statesmen lead the Liberty League in
scoring and points allowed in both league and overall play. Union, meanwhile, is second in points
allowed overall and against league opponents, second in Liberty League scoring
and third in overall scoring.
“Our offensive line will be the
key,” said head coach John Audino, who goes into the game with a program-best
96 Union victories. “The guys up front
don't get a lot of notice, unless they do something wrong, but they have really
come together from the start of the year and have been a key factor in the fact
that we've won our last five games.”
Union's line features junior left tackle Elliott
Silverstein, senior left guard Josh Carroll, junior center Tim Cannon, junior
right guard Pat Hatch, and junior right tackle Jim Masso. Behind the starters are (across the line),
junior Charles McCaleb, freshman Dustin Connelly, sophomore Craig Avalone,
junior Steve Haller, and sophomore Eugene Parloff.
The game will be broadcast
on 1160 AM, WABY Mechanicville, starting with the 12:45 p.m. pregame show on:
SportsJuice.com at this link.
NAPPI AND GAWRONSKI EARN LIBERTY LEAGUE HONORS
Senior football tailback Chris Nappi and junior soccer
goaltender Julie Gawronski each earned Liberty League honors for their
performances last week.
Nappi was named the “Special Teams Performer of the Week”
after returning seven punts for 113 yards with a long of 39. Gawronski picked up her second “Defensive
Performer of the Week” as she had three saves (in each game) as the Dutchwomen
finished the regular season with wins over Nazareth and St. John Fisher.