PSU Sports Wrap-Up

CLOCK PHOTO / ERIC BRILL

The Cross Country teams have progressed as their 2014 campaign has continued. In their first meet of the season, both the men’s and women’s teams captured 9^th place at the Shaklette Invitational, and were looking to build momentum up to their next cross country event. The following week, at the University of New England Invitational, both teams finished 9^th yet again, but times by multiple people drastically improved. The Panthers not only gained more points in this event, but every single runner improved their time from the Invitational a week before. David Martino (Laconia, N.H.) posted what is the fastest 8K time of any runner for Plymouth this season, a 28:06, while Sarah Uhlman’s (Ashland, N.H.) 21:30 in the 5K allowed her to finish in 29^th out of 140^th place. Upon competing in the UMass Dartmouth Invitational, the Panthers will look to build on some early season success, as they travel to Keene this weekend for their next Invitational.

Behind Nikki Garvey (Canaan, N.H.) and Alivia Bates (Pennsauken, N.J.), the Field Hockey team is on a three-game winning streak. Against Worcester State, Bates had 11 saves in a 5-0 win, while Garvey, Lily Davis (Boscawen, N.H.), Kristen Morris (Stoughton, MA), Sam Carberry (Shrewsbury, PA) and Kaitlyn Wilder (Framingham, MA) all scored a goal in the team’s first conference win of the season. In a follow-up performance against Western Connecticut State, Garvey found the back of the net three times, while Emily Davis (Boscawen, N.H.) scored her first goal of the season for PSU. The 4-2 win should give the Panthers a lot of momentum as they have eight of their next nine games against Little East Conference opponents. With Bates allowing only two goals over the past 141 minutes of game time, the Panthers will look to capture wins over Westfield and Keene State over the next few days.

Two one-goal losses were tough for the Men’s Soccer team to deal with, but put a fire under the team to capture a BIG 2-1 win over Keene State last weekend.  Adam Edmunds (Wilton, N.H.) scored in the first few minutes of the game to give the Panthers the early 1-0 lead. Keene was able to tie the game up about 12 minutes after the Plymouth goal, and the teams went into halftime with the game tied at 1. Felix Lindeberg (Stockholm, Sweden) played phenomenally in net during the second half of the game, as he stopped all three shots that were attempted. Senad Mehmedovic (Concord, N.H.) found the back of the net for what was the game-winning goal of the game at the 62^nd minute mark. Tough defense and the ability to keep the ball on their offensive side of the field ultimately allowed the Panthers to improve their record to 2-5 overall, and 1-0 in Little East Conference play. After playing their first seven games over a two week span, the Panthers had a small break prior to playing the University of Southern Maine on Friday (9/26) night.

Behind nine kills from Katie Sylvia (Lee, N.H.) and 30 assists from Megan Bailey (Canterbury, N.H.), the Volleyball team defeated Lasell College three sets to none on Tuesday (9/23) night. The Panthers were never in any real threat to lose the match, as they won the first two sets 25-12 and 25-15, respectively. The third set ended up being much closer, as this was do or die for Lasell, but fortunately for PSU, they won the third set 29-27. This win put Plymouth’s record to 4-8 overall, and they have a 0-1 record in Little East Conference play. The next game for the Panthers is on Saturday afternoon, as they host UMass Dartmouth in a Little East Conference match-up.

Another 9-0 straight set win over Lyndon State gave the Tennis team their six win of the season, to put their record at 6-0. Between the six matches this season, PSU has won a combined 60 matches, to only three losses. A big reason for the dominant performance is from the combination of Zara and Sunny Jakubas (both from Califon, N.J.) who have gone a combined 11-1, while going 6-0 in doubles matches. Not to be outdone, Nitsa Ioannides (El Cajon, CA) is 6-0 in her singles matches, while having a personal record of 6-0 in doubles matches with Nikki Lund (Hingham, MA) and Peyton Smith (Stuttgart, Germany). This team has rolled through every single opponent they have faced in the 2014 season, and do not show any signs of slowing down. In the Lyndon competition, the Panthers dropped only 11 matches, to their 96 victories. The Panthers will look to continue their undefeated streak in both regular season play and conference play (they are 2-0 in the Little East Conference) as they play UMass Dartmouth on Saturday (9/27) afternoon.

The Women’s Soccer team lost their forth consecutive one goal game, as they fell to Worcester State 2-1 on Wednesday (9/24) night. This brings the team’s record to 1-4 overall, but the team is only a -1 in net goals for the 2014 season. In the Worcester game, freshman Caitlin Johnson (Newington, CT) scored at the 48^th minute of the contest to make the game into a one-goal deficit. Unfortunately for the Panther offense, they weren’t able to find the back of the net again. Sophomore goalie Annaliese Schmidt (Newmarket, N.H.) had yet another great game in net, as she stopped 17 of the 19 shots she faced, which is a career high for her in the green and white for PSU.  Schmidt is currently 2^nd in the Little East Conference in save percentage, as she has stopped 90.8% of the shots she has faced this season. The Panthers will look to get back on track, as they face the University of Southern Maine on Saturday (9/27) afternoon. USM is currently 2-6-1 overall this season, and their goalie is letting up over two goals a game, while they have scored only three goals in their first eight games.  Watch for PSU to capture the win in this game.