FIELD HOCKEY NOTEBOOK
University of Vermont field hockey (3-4) hits the road for a pair of matches this weekend, beginning in Rhode Island on Friday (Sept. 22) against Bryant before heading north to take on Northeastern on Sunday (Sept. 24). The Bryant game will be played at 4 p.m. from Brown University in East Providence, Rhode Island and UVM will meet the Huskies on Sunday at 2 p.m. at Dedham Field in Dedham, Massachusetts.
 
Live stats will be available for both matches and Sunday's contest at Northeastern will be streamed on Stretch Internet.
 
RELATED LINKS
Bryant: Live Stats
Northeastern: Video | Live Stats
 
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CATAMOUNTS RECAP
Vermont was handed a tough setback this past Tuesday (Sept. 19) in a 1-0 loss to Holy Cross. Despite multiple offensive opportunities in the second half the Green and Gold were unable to solve Holy Cross goalkeeper Marcia LaPlante (10 saves). The lone goal of the match came from Maureen Connolly in just the sixth minute.
 
SCOUTING BRYANT
Bryant enters Friday's match with a 1-8 record, having topped Brown 4-3 back on Sept. 1. Since then the Bulldogs have been on the down side of two one-goal results against Providence (Sept. 3) and UC Davis (Sept. 15).
 
Freshman Alex Neumann leads the charge offensively with three goals plus an assist, while junior Victoria Newbill has two goals to go with a pair of helpers. Sophomore Miranda Grundy (4.84 GAA) has seen the majority of time in the cage, while rookie Lyndsay Swanston has played 181 minutes.
 
Head coach Joppe de Vries arrived in Rhode Island this past summer from Maryland, where he served as associate head coach (2016) and assistant coach (2013-15). The team's lone opponent in common with the Catamounts is Dartmouth, which were the victors in a 7-2 contest on Sept. 10.
 
SCOUTING NORTHEASTERN
The Huskies head into the weekend with a 4-3 mark overall and will take on Maine before hosting Vermont Sunday. This will be the fourth home matches of Northeastern's last five overall. Most recently, NU held Brown to just one shot on goal in a 4-1 victory on Sept. 17.
 
As a team Northeastern ranks second in the Colonial Athletic Association with 3.43 goals per game, a stat that also is 10th in the country. Eight tallies have come by way of Jamie Bartucca, who had an early strike last year against UVM. Redshirt sophomore goalkeeper Julia Ennis has started six of seven matches and compiled a 2.08 goals against average with a .700 save percentage.
 
Longtime head coach Cheryl Murtagh is in her 30th year guiding the Huskies and will retire following the 2017 season. The 1981 New Hampshire graduate spent two seasons at Bentley (1982-83) as head coach before joining Northeastern as an assistant. In her inaugural go-round in 1988, the Huskies reached the NCAA Final Four.
 
INSIDE THE SERIES
Vermont evened its all-time series with Bryant at one-apiece last season after taking a 4-2 decision at Moulton Winder Field. Also in 2016 and also in Burlington, UVM earned its first ever win over the Huskies. After going into halftime down 2-0 on Sept. 4, the Green and Gold used a trio of second half tallies to rally and secure a 3-2 topping of Northeastern. Lena Benwood had four saves in that contest.
 
ESPELAND NAMED TO USWNT
Freshman goalkeeper Sierra Espeland has been named to the United States Women's National Team that will compete at the Women's Indoor Pan-American Cup. The seven-team tournament will take place in Georgetown, Guyana from Monday, Oct. 16 through Saturday, Oct. 21.
 
Click here to read more information regarding Espeland's selection.
 
FAMILIAR FACES
Vermont head coach Kate Pfeifer spent seven seasons under NU's Cheryl Murtagh before making the trip up to the Green Mountain State. Three of her seasons in Boston were in an assistant coach capacity before she was promoted to associate head coach for her final four years.
 
UVM assistant coach Kyle Lyons also tutored current Northeastern assistant MaKayla Hancock in 2012 and 2013 when the pair were together at Bryant.
 
ATOP THE NATION
After recording two defensive saves last Friday (Sept. 15) against Dartmouth, freshman Pleun Haantjes now has five on the season which leads the Division I ranks. Haantjes has cracked that column in the box score in four of her last five matches.
 
CLIMBING THE RECORD BOOK
At this juncture of the season multiple Catamounts are working their way up the program record book. In the cage, Lena Benwood has totaled 401 career saves which sits ninth in team history; she needs exactly five more to tie Barb Poulin (1982-84) for eighth.
 
Offensively both Lauren Tucker and Landon Warren find themselves in a race in the career points category. Tucker has amassed 48 on 16 goals and 16 assists to slide ahead of JoAnn Rathbun (1987-90) for 11th, while Warren (23 goals, 1 assist) is tied with Rathbun.
 
CHAT WITH THE CATS
Throughout the 2017 field hockey season, UVM Athletics will sit down with each Catamount rookie for a brief question-and-answer session discussing life on and off-pitch. On Wednesday, we caught up with goalkeeper and New Zealand native Shannon English. Click here to read the feature.
 
NEW LOOK CATS
Vermont boasts 12 newcomers in 2017, a total that is composed in part by 11 freshmen. The group includes rookies Claudia Cotter, Shannon English, Sierra Espeland, Pleun Haantjes, Ali House, Taryn Marra, Bailey Matthews, Sydney Melfi, Kailyn Myshrall, Clare Sheahan and Laura Zavrl. Sophomore transfer Sophia Cheever has also joined the squad.
 
LEADERS OF THE PACK
Jackie Gillen and Olivia Hurd will lead the Catamounts in 2017 as captains.
 
HENNI TIETZE JOINS CATAMOUNT STAFF
Head coach Kate Pfeifer announced during the preseason that Henni Tietze has joined her program's staff as an assistant coach. Tietze (pronounced TEET-zuh) comes to UVM after spending the 2016 season in the same capacity at Providence College of the BIG EAST.
 
Tietze also enjoyed a four-year career at Providence (2011-14) at center-back, during which she amassed 22 goals and 15 assists. Her 59 total points rank 22nd all-time in program history.
 
NEXT UP
UVM opens America East play next Friday (Sept. 29) with a 3 p.m. matchup at New Hampshire.

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