Rudden totaled eight points in her final collegiate game, finishing ranked eighth on Stonehill's career scoring list (PHOTO BY Brian Foley)

Skyhawks cap inaugural NCAA Division I season with third-straight NEC win

NEW BRITAIN, Conn. (April 22, 2023) – Stonehill College closed out its inaugural NCAA Division I season with a third-straight Northeast Conference win after a 17-4 victory over Central Connecticut State University at Arute Field this afternoon.

Stonehill caps its first NCAA Division I season with a 5-10 record overall, including a 5-3 mark in the NEC, which would be good enough to clinch a spot in the Conference Tournament if the Skyhawks were eligible. Due to Conference transition rules, Stonehill is not eligible to postseason play in the NEC until the 2024-25 academic year. The Skyhawks are currently in fourth place in the NEC standings a half game behind Saint Francis (Pa.) University (10-4, 5-2 NEC) for third and a half game ahead of LIU (6-9, 4-3 NEC). The Skyhawks could finish in a tie for third should Saint Francis lose to Wagner College in their season finale next Saturday.

Central Connecticut State (3-11, 1-6 NEC) wraps up its 2023 season next Saturday at Howard University at noon. 

Highlights

• Conway tallied three goals and a career-high matching two assists for five points (PHOTO BY Brian Foley)

  Senior All-American Lydia Rudden led Stonehill with eight points in her final collegiate game, totaling three goals and five assists. Classmate Kayla Conway tallied three goals and a career-high matching two assists, adding two ground balls and a caused turnover, in her last collegiate game.
• Five Skyhawks recorded hat tricks in the game this afternoon, with postgrad All-American Emma Sullivan, along with juniors Molly Mae Hughes and Lilly Leach all scored three goals today, with Sullivan also collecting two draw controls and two caused turnovers.
• Junior Claire Smith posted eight saves in her 45-minutes of work in goal for Stonehill, yielding just two goals.
• Senior Olivia Gianakos scored three of CCSU's four goals in the contest, adding four ground balls and four caused turnovers.
• Senior Adrianna Richards registered ten saves in goal for the Blue Devils, chipping in a caused turnover.

How it Happened

• Stonehill scored the first three goals of the game in the opening eight minutes on its way to a 7-1 lead after a quarter of play and didn't look back.
• Leach, Sullivan and senior All-American Victoria Butler all scored in the opening eight minutes to grab the lead for the Skyhawks.
• Gianakos got CCSU on the scoreboard 40-seconds after Butler netted Stonehill's third with 6:27 to play in the first quarter.
• Stonehill scored the final four goals of the first, including two by Hughes as Conway added a goal and assist and Rudden dished out two assists in the closing five minutes.
• Senior Katelyn Parker opened the second quarter scoring for CCSU 3:19 in, but Stonehill would score the next nine goals to open a 15-2 lead after three quarters that put the game away.

• Sullivan added three goals, two draws and two caused turnovers (PHOTO BY Brian Foley)

  Rudden tallied two goals and an assist in the second quarter to lead the Skyhawks to a 12-2 lead at the half, while Conway contributed a goal and assist.
• Five different players scored goals in the second half for the Skyhawks to seal the win.

Noteworthy

• Rudden finished the season with multiple points in 14-straight games, having logged at least one goal and one assist in the last 14 as well.
• Sullivan notched multiple goals in the final five games of the year with her hat trick.
• Conway posts her eight multi-goal game of the year, while Leach finished the season with three-straight multi-goal games and nine total this year.
• Rudden finishes her career eighth on Stonehill's career scoring list with 237 points, including her program-record 154 assists, with 83 goals in 49 games. Her 48 assists this season leads the NEC by 23 and finishes tied for third on Stonehill's all-time single-season list with her sister, Brooke Rudden, '15 who dished 48 assists in 2015.
• Sullivan caps her career ranked 13^th in program history with 203 points, including 170 goals to rank eighth all-time, while adding 36 assists. She also finishes second all-time for career draw controls (276), tied for third in career caused turnovers (94) and sixth for career ground balls (164) in 67 career games played.
• Butler finishes ranked seventh in program history with 157 career draw controls.

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