PREVIEW: No. 3 field hockey opens season with back-to-back games

9/4/2021 10:00:00 PM

MANCHESTER, N.H. – The nationally-ranked Saint Anselm College field hockey team will begin its 2021 campaign on Saturday, Sept. 4 with an 11 a.m. tilt against Franklin Pierce University. A regular Northeast-10 Conference opponent for Saint Anselm, Saturday's game will be played as a non-league fixture. The Hawks then travel to New Haven for a showdown with the Chargers at 3:30 p.m. on Sunday.

SAINT ANSELM COLLEGE HAWKS (0-0, 0-0 NE10)
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Saint Anselm, ranked third in NCAA Division III, is beginning its 21st season of intercollegiate competition on Saturday. This count includes the team's 1-0 record in official play last spring – the Hawks were able to topple Franklin Pierce in Rindge, N.H. by a 3-1 score on Apr. 19, 2021.

The Hawks have won at least 15 games in each of the last five full seasons and finished the 2019 season with a 20-3 record, ending the year as the national runner-up at the NCAA Division II National Championship.

Franklin Pierce posted a 3-1 record during the 2020-21 academic year, taking on Keene State (NCAA Division III), American International twice and Saint Anselm. In the most recently completed full season, the Ravens logged an 8-11 record and were ousted from the NE10 playoffs by Saint Anselm, 2-0, in the Quarterfinals on Nov. 5, 2019.

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HAWKS NOTES

According to the Penn Monto/National Field Hockey Coaches' Association's Division II National Coaches' Poll, Saint Anselm will open the 2021 schedule as the No. 3-ranked team in the country in Division II. The Hawks were the highest-ranked NE10 program on the list.
The No. 3 national ranking is the highest in team history and has been reached in polls nine times prior. Saint Anselm played in one officially countable game during the 2020-21 academic year, traveling to Franklin Pierce to pick up a 3-1 victory over the Ravens on Apr. 19.
The Hawks are slated to play 17 regular-season games in 2021-22 season and look to return to both NE10 and NCAA postseason play once again, a feat they have achieved in every full season since 2016. The Hawks will look to replace four Longstreth/NFHCA Division II All-America selections from the 2019 roster.
Saint Anselm finished as the national runner-up at the NCAA Division II Field Hockey Championship in 2019, winning each of its 20 games via shutout to establish a single-season NCAA record. The Hawks won 18 out of a possible 19 games versus Northeast-10 Conference opponents and outscored league foes by a commanding 63-to-1 margin.
As a team, Saint Anselm finished atop NCAA Division II in cumulative save percentage (0.870), goals-against average (0.26) and shutouts per game (0.87). The Hawks were most recently picked to finish first in the NE10 standings, according to the conference's Preseason Coaches' Poll released on Aug. 17.
Senior Carly Lacasse (Sagamore Beach, Mass.) tied for the team lead in point production in 2019, scoring 12 goals and five assists for 29 points (12-5=29). Junior Maeve Murphy (Scituate, Mass.), another returner for the Hawks, scored four goals in 2019. Senior Andrea McNeil (Canton, Mass.) scored twice and added two assists as well in the most recently-played full season.
LaCasse is the only member of the 2021 roster that suited up in the National Championship game against West Chester in 2019. Murphy, McNeil, Jackie Gaumer (Thornton, N.H.) and Sarah Bagley (North Andover, Mass.) also received valuable experience playing on the sport's biggest stage two years ago.
The Hawks roster features two goalkeepers, including sophomore Mackenzie McConnell (Concord Township, Maine) and freshman Sidney Falterer (Fairfield, Conn.). McConnell played in the spring contest against Franklin Pierce, allowing one goal on four shots to earn the victory in net. Falterer will look to make her collegiate debut in 2021.
Entering her 10th season on the Hilltop, Head Coach Carolyn King-Robitaille owns a 105-54 (.660) overall record. Ranked second among active coaches in winning percentage (min. five seasons), King-Robitaille is eighth nationally among current team leaders with 105 victories.

RAVENS NOTES

Then-freshman Anna Beck led the Ravens in goal scoring and point production in 2020-21, tallying four goals for eight points (4-0=8). Current junior Alicia Hottleman and current sophomore Julia Rooijakkers each struck for two goals, adding single assists as well (2-1=3). The three aforementioned student-athletes each had a game-winning goal for the Ravens in 2020-21.
Feline van Doorn is the lone senior on the 2021 roster for Franklin Pierce. In 36 career games for the Ravens from 2018-20, she logged nine goals with five assists for 23 points (9-5=23) and has earned 22 starts for Franklin Pierce.
Like Saint Anselm, the Ravens will turn to new goalkeepers in 2021. With the departure of Olivia Barnes, who started each of the four games this past spring, MacKenzie Potvin is a junior from nearby Goffstown, N.H. with just one quarter (15 minutes) of experience during the abbreviated season. She is joined on the roster by freshman Addy Araneo.
Franklin Pierce will compete under second-year Head Coach Marissa Shaw, who took the reins of the program prior to the pandemic-shortened 2020-21 year of competition. In 2019, she served as an Assistant Coach at Stonehill and was previously a graduate assistant coach at NCAA Division III Springfield from 2016-18.

ALL TIME vs. FRANKLIN PIERCE

Saint Anselm holds the narrow 18-16 edge in the all-time series that dates back to 2001, the inaugural season of varsity field hockey on the Hilltop.
Saturday's game against the Ravens will be the 35th all-time meeting between both programs, far and away the most frequent opponent for the Hawks field hockey team in history.
The Hawks own a 13-game winning streak over Franklin Pierce dating back to Sept. 17, 2013, an overtime win at Grappone Stadium.
When playing in Manchester, Saint Anselm owns a 9-7 record in the all-time series.

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