By Jamie Schwab
Staff Writer
With all fall sports teams in midseason form, let’s catch up on the recent action.
Men’s Golf
The men’s golf team posted a historic final day at the Northeast-10 Championship at the Lake Sunapee Country Club in New London, N.H. all five team members attended the tournament finishing under 80. Behind ’19 Colin Gaunt’s 151 final score for the tournament, the Purple Knights finished seventh in the tournament. Gaunt’s 16th place finish was the best placement of any purple knight at the tournament since 2014.
“We had a very solid team score the first day and put ourselves in the best position we have ever been in,” said David Boardman ’19, who finished 46th. On day two of the tournament, the Purple Knights had the fifth best score, within six shots of second place. Boardman trimmed a championship best 13 strokes off his score card between days. Matt Johnson ’20 shot a 152 for the tournament and finished 20th; while Connor Morse ’21 shot a 153 and finished tied for 23rd. The captain, Tucker Buteau ’19, finished very well, finishing 27th with a score of 154.
“We are going to continue to have fun, play well and hopefully break a couple more school records along the way,” Boardman said. Next up is Le Moyne College Fall Invitational on Oct. 13-14 in Cicero, N.Y.
Women’s Field Hockey
The field hockey team produced a shutout against conference foe American International on Tuesday, spearheaded by superb defense. Jackie Mathews ’18 and Morgan Johnston ’19 scored the goals for the Knights, and Anna Hurley ’20 only needed to make a single save to record her fourth shutout on the season. Captain Jenna Deschaine hopes for big things against tough conference opponents this month. “Our conference is so competitive that any team can win on any given day no matter what their ranking is. Definitely teams who are at the top of the conference like Stonehill and Adelphi will be challenging, but I think we’re up for it,” Deschaine said.
The team, 5-7 overall, hosts Southern Connecticut State University on Saturday.
Men’s Soccer
The Purple Knights men’s soccer team defended their home turf on Saturday against Felician (N.J.) University, as Andres Rivas ’20 netted a clutch goal in overtime to win the match 2-1. The Knights were able to come back from an early 1-0 deficit, as Justin D’Orlando ’20 knotted the game at 1-1 in the 74th minute on an assist from Rivas. Knights goalkeeper Gabriel Pineda ’20 came on in relief to make three saves to help secure the win. On Tuesday, the Knights fell to Franklin Pierce 4-1. Adrian Diaz ’18 scored the lone goal for the Knights in the 83rd minute to help the Knights avoid the shutout. The Knights are currently 3-7-1.
Women’ Soccer
The women’s soccer team dropped a tough match to Pace University at home on Saturday by a score of 2-0. The team headed into the half down a goal, despite almost scoring off a free kick by Meghan Dieterle ’20 in the 22nd minute. Liz Vallatini ’21, made her first career collegiate start and was able to keep the deficit at one until the 60th minute, when Pace struck again with a shot inside the near post. Although the Knights came close to scoring down the stretch, the Pace goalkeeper stifled every opportunity. The Knights sport a 3-6-1 record as they head into Wednesday’s matchup against St. Anselm College.
Men’s and Women’s Cross Country
Both the men’s and women’s cross country teams finished in the top 15 at the James Early Invitational at Stanley Park in Westfield, M.A. Led by Abby French ’20, who finished with a time of 19:27.42 placed 17th in the 5K, the women’s team tied for 11th in the meet. “We all performed well in the meet a week prior and had a successful and positive week of training. That contributed to everyone’s positive attitude and excitement for the race,” French said.
Both Roxy Withers ’18 and Emily Koukos ’20 finished strong placing 54th and 84th, respectively. French, Withers, Koukos and Leah Seften ’18, the fourth Purple Knight to finish, submitted PRs.The women finished with a total score of 334. The men finished strong as well as they placed 14th among 40 teams. Kevin Jeter ’20 led the Purple Knights by placing 19th among the nearly 266 competitors in the 8K, finishing with a time of 27:01.85. Tim DeCosta ’20, Mike DeAngelo ’21, David Baird ’19 and Nathan Terry ’19 rounded out the team’s scorers, with DeCosta, DeAngelo and Terry all setting PRs. The Purple Knight runners return to Stanley Park for the NE10 Championship on Oct. 22.
Women’s Tennis
The women’s tennis team was in action this past weekend with back to back matches against New Haven and Adelphi. The team faced New Haven on Saturday and suffered a narrow 5-4 defeat. The duo of Amelia Weeks ’18 and Caroline Sumner ’20 produced a victory at No. 2 doubles, and Melissa Wood ’21 was victorious in singles action to gain a second point for the Knights. Both Weeks and Sumner then proceeded to win their singles matches, but the team lost the final decisive singles match in a third set tiebreaker to come up short. The team lost to regionally- ranked Adelphi 9-0 on Sunday. The Knights head into Wednesday’s post press time match against Bentley with a 4-8 record.
Women’s Volleyball
The women’s volleyball team lost in straight sets to St. Anselm College 3-0 on Tuesday night. McKenzie McNamara ’18 paced the Knights with six kills and three blocks. Gabby Ratte ’19 (five kills, 10 digs and six assists) and Sarah Rodgers ’19 (12 assists, eight digs) had solid all around games, while Julia Colasanti ’18 led the team with 11 digs. The team heads to Merrimack College on Saturday for its next match with a 1-9 overall record.