STANDISH, ME – #2 Saint Joseph's College (15-3, 7-2 NAC) will face top-seeded Castleton State College (13-6, 9-0 NAC) in the North Atlantic Conference (NAC) Field Hockey Championship in Castleton, Vermont at 4:30 PM on Saturday.
The Monks are currently ranked fifth in the most recent NCAA DIII New England East Regional Poll, while the Spartans are fourth in the region.
How they got here:
Led by ninth-year Head Coach Rupert Lewis, Saint Joseph's opened the NAC Tournament with a 4-1 quarterfinal victory over #7 Lasell College on November 2nd and edged #3 Husson University, 2-1, in a semifinal matchup on Wednesday.
Castleton, guided by 10th-year Head Coach Tammy Landon, has skated through the tournament thus far, as the Spartans toppled #8 New England College, 9-3, in quarterfinal action last Saturday and continued to fill the cage in a 7-0 semifinal triumph over #4 University of Maine-Farmington on Wednesday to advance to the championship.
With 10 seniors – including nine starters - on the roster, the Spartans are constructed to win now.
NAC Tournament history:
The Monks have appeared in the NAC Tournament in each of the last six seasons and sport a 7-5 record in tourney play during this span. All five of the team's title bout losses have been by just one goal. In 2012, fifth-seeded Saint Joseph's suffered a 2-1 loss at the hands of #4 New England College in the first round of the NAC Tournament.
The championship game appearance Saturday will be the team's fourth and while St. Joe's has been one of the elite teams in the conference since joining the league in 2008, the Monks have had little luck in the title bout with three one-goal losses, including a pair of heartbreaking overtime setbacks.
Castleton, the reigning conference champion, has appeared in the NAC Tournament every season since 2005 and owns an 11-6 record in postseason play during the nine-year spell. The Spartans are in search of their third NAC title as the team first claimed the crown in 2008 and knocked off Husson, 8-6, in a high-scoring championship contest last fall.
The Spartans are 0-2 in NCAA Tournament play, with a 2-1 loss to SUNY-Cortland in 2008 and an 8-0 setback at the hands of Tufts University, the eventual NCAA DIII National Champion, last season.
Saint Joseph's and Castleton have met twice in the postseason. The Spartans edged the Monks, 4-3, in the 2008 NAC Championship and St. Joe's nipped Castleton, 2-1, in a 2010 semifinal matchup.
Recipe for success – Saint Joseph's:
Always strong defensively, the Monks have taken things to another level this fall, as the 2013 squad leads the country in shutouts per game (0.59) and ranks second nationally with a 0.76 goals against average. Saint Joseph's has broken the program's single-season record for shutouts (10) and consecutive shutouts (5) and has only allowed 14 goals and 98 shots (5.4 per game) all season. St. Joe's has allowed more than two goals just twice all year – a 3-0 loss to Castleton on October 5th and a 4-3 OT setback at the hands of Plymouth State College on October 29th.
Freshman goalkeeper Emma Astbury (Bridgewater, Vt.), a First Team All-NAC selection, anchors the SJC backline and sports a 0.80 goals against average with eight shutouts in the cage. The athletic defensive corps, which features junior Kaylee Heath (Pittston, Maine) and sophomores Meghan Williams (Greenland, N.H./St. Thomas Aquinas), Chelsea Bordeau (Rumford, Maine) and Kayla Royer (Greene, Maine), is perhaps the team's greatest strength.
St. Joe's is no slouch on the offensive end, either, as the team ranks second in the conference in scoring (2.4 goals per game) and scoring margin (1.64). The offense has come from a handful of different players, as five individuals have netted four or more goals this fall.
Junior transfer Effie Drew (Portland, Maine) leads the Monks' balanced attack with 10 goals, three assists and 23 total points while senior Rachelle Messuri (Atkinson, N.H.) is close behind with seven goals and seven assists for 21 points this season. Freshman Kelsey Dumond (Lewiston, Maine) ranks second on the team in goals (8) while midfielders Theresa Hendrix (Scarborough, Maine/Cheverus), Carley Denis (Lewiston, Maine) and Amanda Celata (Dedham, Mass.) have all produced at least 10 points so far this year.
Recipe for success – Castleton State:
Castleton is one of the most prolific offensive programs in the country this season. The Spartans have outscored opponents by an 86-44 combined score and netted four or more markers in 11 different games, all victories. The hosts are currently eighth in the country with 4.39 goals per game average and rank second in the nation with 3.28 assists per contest.
Senior forward Rachel Preusser (Craryville, N.Y.) – the two-time NFCHA New England All-Region First Team honoree and 2013 NAC Offensive Player of the Year – leads the Spartans' potent offense with 25 goals and 26 assists for 76 total points this season. She leads the country with 1.33 assists per game, is currently second nationally in points per game (4.00) and seventh in NCAA DIII with 1.33 goals per contest.
Senior Blake Wardwell (Bridgewater, Vt.) and junior Kristy Pinkham (Brandon, Vt.) join Preusser as members of the Spartans three-headed scoring front. Both 2013 First Team All-NAC selections, Wardwell has put up 16 goals and 40 total points this fall while Pinkham has contributed 13 goals and 34 points this season. Senior Shawna Pinsonault (Brownsville, Vt.) is also in the midst of a fine season with 10 goals and 26 points while freshman Sarah Heffernan (Bristol, Vt.) has netted seven tallies as a rookie forward.
Also solid defensively, the Spartans feature a pair of First Team All-Conference defenders in seniors Stephanie Bardell (Erwinna, Pa.) – the 2013 NAC Defensive Player of the Year – and Shannon Burns (Wayne, N.J.). Junior keeper Jessica Galatioto (Queensbury, N.Y.) has been solid in net and boasts a 2.42 goals against average with a .765 save percentage and five shutouts this season.
Attitude reflects leadership:
Coach Lewis, who owns a 100-63 (.613) coaching record overall and 39-8 (.830) mark against NAC opponents, is the most successful skipper in the 19-year history of the SJC field hockey program. The 2-1 victory over Husson on Wednesday was the 100th of his collegiate career, but #101 would be the most significant if his Monks can pull off the upset triumph over Castleton on Saturday. Lewis, the two-time NAC Coach of the Year (2009, 2010) has led Saint Joseph's to the NAC Tournament in each of the team's six seasons as a member of the conference, but the NAC title and subsequent NCAA Tournament berth have proved elusive, as the aforementioned one-goal setbacks would suggest.
His philosophy is based on suffocating defensive play and an offense that is able to quickly recognize mismatches. Communication among the players on the field is paramount and will certainly be a key for the Royal Blue versus the high-powered Spartans.
Coach Landon, currently 107-85 (.557), has built the Castleton program into a consistent winner and perennial conference championship contender. With 18 returning players from the 2012 NAC Championship side, she cleverly assembled a very difficult out-of-conference docket and four of the Spartans' six losses this season have come at the hands of nationally or regionally ranked programs.
Established as one of the best coaches in New England, Landon has been named as the NAC Coach of the Year four times (2005, 2007, 2008, 2011) and earned Dita/NFHCA New England Coach of the Year honors in 2007.
The last time we met:
Saint Joseph's entered the October 5th contest at Castleton with a pristine 8-0 record, but the Spartans effectively dashed the Monks' long-shot hopes of posting a perfect season by blanking the Royal Blue, 3-0, that day. Castleton held a slim 12-11 shots advantage as Pinkham netted a pair and Wardwell also scored while Galatioto stopped all seven shots she faced to hand the Monks their first loss.
The setback put the Monks in a momentary tailspin, as the Royal Blue dropped a 2-1 decision to Lasell four days later win what would be the team's only two-game losing streak all season.
2013 season synopsis:
The Monks' 2013 win total and winning percentage (.833) both rank as program all-time season records, with the 15-win tally tied for the most in team history with the 2008 squad that went 15-6 and fell to Castleton in the NAC Championship. Saint Joseph's opened the season with eight-consecutive victories and rattled off five-straight wins, all shutouts, after the short-lived two-game skid in early-October.
The Spartans have outscored opponents by a ridiculous 86-44 margin this season, with 17 of the opposing markers coming in losses to nationally-ranked Skidmore College, Mount Holyoke College and Middlebury College. With these setbacks removed from the equation, Castleton owns a daunting 80-27 scoring margin, including a 44-5 combined score versus NAC foes - this fall. If recent tourney results bear out, the Spartans could be peaking at the right time, as Castleton has outscored New England College and Maine-Farmington by a 16-3 aggregate score and held a combined 72-23 shots advantage in the lopsided postseason wins.
Castleton State:
Saint Joseph's College is Maine's only Catholic liberal arts college, providing a supportive, personalized and career-focused education for more than 100 years. From its 430-acre campus on the shores of Sebago Lake, the College offers more than 40 undergraduate programs to a population of approximately 1,000 students. Saint Joseph's College Online provides certificates, undergraduate and advanced degrees for working adults through an online learning program. For more, visit www.sjcme.edu.
