Oct. 24, 2012

Durham, N.H. - The Stony Brook women's soccer team will open the 2012 America East playoffs with a road matchup against No. 3 New Hampshire on Thursday at 2 p.m. The Seawolves defeated the Wildcats in Durham by a 1-0 score in overtime last Thursday as freshman Raven Edwards netted the decisive goal.

Stony Brook

The No. 6 seed in the conference, Stony Brook (9-6-3, 3-4-1 AE) enters the playoffs for the fifth time in the last six seasons. The Seawolves are led offensively by junior Larissa Nysch (Dresher, Pa.), who ranks third in the conference with 17 points. Nysch is tied for fourth in the America East with four goals and leads the conference with 57 shots.

New Hampshire

The Seawolves' opponent, New Hampshire (5-11-2, 3-4-1 AE) finished with the same amount of points during the season as Stony Brook (10), but finished third due to head-to-head tiebreakers against Albany and Vermont. The Wildcats have been stingy at both ends of the field in 2012, scoring the fewest goals in conference play (6), but also conceding the third fewest (7) at the defensive end.

Freshman Faceoff

Thursday's matchup against UNH will feature the two highest-scoring freshmen in the America East: Edwards (12 points) and the Wildcats' Kirstyn Corder (13 points). Both Edwards and Corder scored five goals, while Corder dished out one more assist during the regular season. Edwards has three game-winning goals to Corder's two, however, including the OT tally against Corder's Wildcats last week.

Playoff Picture

Thursday's quarterfinal action also pits No. 4 Vermont against No. 5 Albany at 2 p.m. Vermont prevailed in the teams' regular season meeting by a 2-1 score in Schenectady, N.Y. The winner of that matchup will face No. 1 Hartford on Sunday, while the winner of SBU/UNH will travel to No. 2 Maine.