EASTON, Mass. (November 6, 2024) – Two members of the Stonehill College field hockey program have earned spots on the All-Northeast Conference second team as selected by the league's nine head coaches the Conference announced today.

 

Conte

Stark

Senior goalkeeper Shannon Conte and sophomore midfielder Tyra Stark have both earned All-NEC honors for the second time in their careers with their spots on the second team. The duo gives Stonehill five All-NEC second-team selections over the first three years of the program's transition to NCAA Division I status with Conte earning the honors as a sophomore in 2022 and Stark being named as a freshman in 2023. The field hockey program has now had 77 All-Conference selections over its 28-year history.

Conte, named the NEC Defensive Player of the Week for a second time in her career two weeks ago, earns All-NEC second-team honors for the second time. She played all but 15 minutes in the Stonehill goal this fall, posting a 2.15 goals against average and .713 save percentage with 5.4 saves per game in 1,085:55 over 18 starts with three shutouts. Conte is tied for fourth among NEC leaders for shutouts, while ranking third for total saves and saves per game (5.39), sixth in save percentage, and seventh for goals against average. She made a season-high 15 saves at the University of Maine on September 22.

Conte, who received the Outstanding Junior Award at Stonehill's Athletic Awards Night in May, started 51 of her 52 career games played. She ranks second in program history behind Sara Freedman, '19 (466 saves) for career saves with 387, while her 7.4 saves per game over her career is a program record, having posted double-digit saves in 16 games over her career.

Conte ranks sixth in program history for goalkeeper minutes played at 3,082:03, having posted a 3.02 goals against average and .714 save percentage with five shutouts, ranking sixth all-time in games played by a goalkeeper. Conte posted a career-high 18 saves at Fairfield University in 2022 and owns two of the top ten single-season save totals in program history, including a program-record 163 saves as a sophomore in 2022. A two-sport student-athlete at Stonehill, Conte is a three-year letter-winner on the Stonehill softball team and was named the College's Outstanding Junior Award recipient in May, having played 126 games over her career and is coming off a 2024 season in which she hit .305 with 16 runs scored, nine doubles, a triple, four home runs, and 24 RBI.
 

Conte caps her field hockey career with a second All-NEC selection (PHOTO BY Brian Foley)

Stark, who earned NEC Prime Performer status twice this season, started all 18 games for Stonehill this fall and led the Skyhawks in scoring with 13 points and six goals while delivering one assist and scoring two game-winning goals. She is tied for tenth among NEC goalscoring leaders, is tied for 14^th in points, and is tied for fifth in game-winning goals. Stark notched her first career multi-goal game with a pair of markers in the Skyhawks 4-2 triumph over Central Michigan University that marked their first win of the season, adding game winners in NEC victories over Merrimack College and Mercyhurst University.

Stark has had an immediate impact for Stonehill over her first two collegiate seasons. She has started all 36 games the Skyhawks have played and totaled ten goals and three assists for 23 career points. Six of Stark's ten career goals are game-winners, including all four of the goals she scored as a freshman when she added a pair of assists for ten points. Stark is the lone freshman to earn All-NEC honors over Stonehill's three NCAA Division I seasons and the first true freshman to earn All-Conference honors for the program since former NFHCA National Player of the Year and three-time NE10 Player of the Year Kacie Smith, '20 was a second-team selection in 2015.

Stonehill wrapped up the 2024 season with a 7-11 record overall, including 4-4 in the NEC to finish sixth in the final regular season standings and finishing a game out of fourth place for a spot in the NEC Tournament. The Skyhawks improved by two wins from a year ago and are up four wins overall from their inaugural NCAA Division I season in 2022, with three more NEC wins than the inaugural season.

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