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UMass Lowell Captures NE-10 Title With 1-0 Win Over Merrimack

Kent 7th minute goal, defense lifts River Hawks to eighth crown in 10 years

All-Tournament Team, MVP and goal-scorer: From left, Rachel McCarthy, Most Oustanding Player Sarah Wilcox and Vanessa Kent, who were named to the All-Tournament Team.
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Senior M Vanessa Kent (Charlton, Mass.) scored the lone goal in the seventh minute as No. 3 UMass Lowell defeated No. 1 Merrimack College, 1-0, Sunday afternoon to capture its third straight Northeast-10 Conference Tournament Championship at Martone-Mejail Field.

With the win, UMass Lowell improved to 18-3 and awaits NCAA Tournament pairings, to be announced on the 2012 NCAA Tournament Selection Show Monday at 2:00 on www.ncaa.com.
The title was UMass Lowell's eighth in the last 10 years.

Senior D Sarah Wilcox (Old Town, Maine) was named the Most Valuable Player as she led a backline which posted its 11th shutout of the season. Kent and junior F Rachel McCarthy (Reading, Mass.) joined her on the All-Tournament Team.

The match echoed last year's NE-10 Championship game, in which UMass Lowell prevailed 3-2 after losing the regular season meeting 2-1. On Oct. 16, Merrimack prevailed 2-1 in the regular season clash at UMass Lowell's Cushing Field.

            “This was a great game. We knew it was going to be a battle from the beginning,” said head coach Shannon Hlebichuk. “Merrimack is a great team and we knew opportunities were going to be hard to come by. We knew we had to capitalize and we were able to get one right away.”

UMass Lowell attacked from the outset and it paid off in the seventh minute. Freshman F Jenna Freitas (Manchester, N.H.) possessed at the left post out of a scramble and slid a pass across the goal mouth to Kent at the far post, who one-timed home.

The River Hawks nearly capitalized in the second minute on a similar play. Sophomore F Bianca Jones (Watertown, Mass.) slid a pass across the crease to sophomore M Chelsea Chronopoulos (Tyngsboro, Mass.), who was just short in getting a stick on it.

Kent nearly got a second goal in the ninth minute, but her shot from just inside the center of the circle was deflected away by junior D Sarah Dunbar.

Merrimack showed its offensive mettle in the second half, which brought out the best in UMass Lowell's backline of Wilcox, junior Kayla MacDonald (Chelmsford, Mass.), sophomore Carrie Dresser (Plaistow, N.H.) and freshman Jessica Walsh (North Easton, Mass.), who played confident, composed and focused on each Warrior attack.

The River Hawk back four lifted a significant amount of pressure from junior GK Melanie Hopkins (Harwich, Mass.), who had no saves, but commanded her area well en route to the shutout.

“We've been telling the kids all week to play with confidence, that they belong here” Hlebichuk said. “We had a game plan and we stuck to it. We told all of them if they stuck to the game plan, good things would happen.

In the 65th minute nearly sealed the win when she took a corner from Kent on the right side and lofted a shot in an attempt to catch Merrimack GK Kerri Bergquist too far off her line, but the shot landed on top of the netting.

The Warriors pressed forward and nearly leveled in the 67th minute when senior F April Daughtery slotted just wide left.

Penalty corners were even at 4-4, and the River Hawks did well to limit the Warriors without a corner in the second half.
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