Welcome totals seven points, nets
hat trick, to lead Ravens to wild win Hislop named Tournament
MVP after 16-point week
RINDGE, N.H. (November 9,
2003) - In a battle between the top two defensive and
offensive teams in the Conference, the offense won out as
top-seeded Franklin Pierce, ranked No. 7 in this week's National
Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA)/adidas Division II
poll, posted a wild 4-3 victory over second-seeded and No.
11-ranked Merrimack College in the highest scoring Northeast-10
Conference Women's Soccer Tournament Championship match decided in
regulation ever at the Franklin Pierce Field Hockey/Lacrosse
Complex this afternoon.
Junior All-American
Meghan Welcome (Haverhill,
Mass./Haverhill), who was awarded her second-straight
Northeast-10 Player of the Year award after the match, totaled
seven points with a hat trick and assist to lead Franklin Pierce to
its fourth-straight NE-10 Tournament title.
Sophomore Laura Hislop
(Belfast, Northern Ireland) added a goal and assist
and was named the Tournament MVP as she finished the event with 16
points, having totaled seven goals and two assists, over the three
matches. Classmate Sonya Hughes (Balbriggan,
Ireland) chipped in two assists for the victors.
Junior Mary Blais
(Marshfield, Mass./Marshfield) led Merrimack with a
goal and
assist.
Franklin Pierce matched a
Conference Championship match record with the four goals, while the
seven combined markers also matched the highest scoring final in
Conference history set in the 1996 title match when Quinnipiac
College defeated Merrimack, 4-3 in a four-overtime thriller.
Today's match was the highest scoring regulation title match in
Conference history.
Welcome opened the scoring just
6:12 into the match as she took a Hughes through ball at the left
wing and fired the first shot of the match into the lower right
corner past the diving effort of Merrimack senior goalkeeper
Erika Paiva (Rumford, R.I./St. Raphael).
Franklin Pierce scored in the
opening seven minutes in all three NE-10 Tournament matches and has
scored in the opening ten minutes in four of its last five matches,
overall.
The Ravens carried the one-goal
cushion into the intermission, but Merrimack knotted the score just
1:55 into the second half. Franklin Pierce senior goalkeeper
Aase Kibsgaard (Korgen, Norway) stopped
an initial shot by sophomore Hilary Caccamo (Milton,
Mass./Milton), but couldn't corral it, and Blais
fired the loose ball into the net.
Franklin Pierce regained its
advantage just 17-seconds later as a Hislop cross from the right
side found Welcome at the near post for a one-timed shot at
47:12.
The Ravens lead grew to 3-1 in the
63rd minute as Hislop collected a pass from Welcome and
fired a low shot into the right corner. The goal, which came on
Hislop's first shot of the match, marked the first of the season by
a player being marked by NE-10 Defensive Player of the Year
Lindsay Sheffield (Georgetown,
Mass./Georgetown).
Where many teams would have
collapsed, Merrimack fought back. Junior Laurie
Lamoureux (Leicester, Mass./Leicester) was on the
receiving end of a cross from sophomore McKenzie Hogan
(Glastonbury, Conn./Glastonbury) that was flicked by
Blais and fired a shot from the top of the penalty area into the
lower right corner at 64:19, just 2:06 after the Ravens had staked
out the two-goal advantage.
The Warriors equalized 5:08 later
when freshman Kim Costanzo (Norwich,
N.Y./Kellenburg) took a pass from classmate
Laura Asbell (Tacoma, Wash./Bellermine
Prep) at the top of the box and fired a shot that
Kibsgaard got a hand on, but still slipped inside the right post.
Welcome netted the winner at 78:51
when Hughes lobbed a pass over the defense, which Welcome settled
before chipping a shot over Paiva and just under the crossbar.
Welcome's seven points on the day
give her 125 for her career to pass Amy Hanlon as the highest
scoring US-born player in program history and move into seventh
place on the program's all-time list. Hanlon totaled 124 points
from
1991-94.
Merrimack recorded a 22-18 shots
advantage for the match after out-shooting the Ravens 13-6 over the
opening 45-minutes. Kibsgaard finished with a career-high 11 saves
for Franklin Pierce with eight of those stops coming in a scoreless
first half. Paiva made seven saves
for Merrimack, with six in the second half. Neither team was
awarded a corner kick in the second half, after Merrimack held a
7-1 advantage after 45-minutes.
Franklin Pierce allowed three goals
in a half for the first time since the 2001 NCAA Semifinals when it
trailed Christian Brothers University 3-0 at the intermission en
route to a 4-1 defeat. The three goals allowed are the most this
season and the most scored by a New England Region opponent since
Bentley College netted three in a 4-3 Franklin Pierce victory on
September 27, 2001.
Franklin Pierce remains undefeated
all-time at home in postseason play (19-0) and extends its home
unbeaten streak against New England Region opponents to 96 matches
(94-0-2).
These two teams now await official
word from the NCAA Division II selection committee for their NCAA
Tournament pairings. Franklin Pierce (18-2) will likely receive the
New England Region's top-seed, while Merrimack (19-3) will receive
the No. 2 seed in the four-team New England Regional to be played
on November 14 and 16. The NCAA's announcement is expected on
Monday at 5 p.m.
MATCH
STATISTICS
