UNH men’s basketball coach Bill Herrion on his team being picked to finish seventh in the America East preseason poll: “I don’t know if this team’s earned being higher than that. With that said, I’ve never put a lot of stock in preseason polls. . . . Hey, I hope the kids use it as a kind of motivation. Those polls are picked by the other coaches in your league. So maybe the other coaches don’t respect us right now. I really like this group of kids. I really like the way they’re practicing.” . . . UNH finished seventh in the league last year with a 6-10 record. The Wildcats were 9-20 overall. . . . Boston University was picked at the top of the preseason poll, followed by Vermont, Hartford, UMBC, Binghamton, Albany, UNH, Maine and Stony Brook.
The UNH women’s soccer and hockey teams take center stage in Durham tomorrow. The soccer team, the No. 3 seed in the America East tournament, plays host to No. 6 Binghamton at 1:30 in a quarterfinal matchup. UNH beat Binghamton, 3-2, n the regular season. The winner of the game advances to a semifinal at Stony Brook on Sunday. . . . The hockey team plays Boston University at the Whittemore Center at 7. BU knocked off UNH for the first time ever last week, 3-2, at BU. The Terriers are 2-0-0 in Hockey East. The Wildcats have tied Boston College and UConn. . . . “The league has gotten a lot tougher, which is great,” said UNH coach Brian McCloskey. “There’s a ton of parity.” . . . Because of graduations, a few players leaving in the offseason and an injury, UNH is down to nine forwards and five defensemen. The lineup is even shorter tonight, and for a game Saturday at Vermont, with forward Jenn Wakefield off to join Canada for the Four Nations tournament.
The men’s hockey team slipped a couple of spots to No. 6 in the USCHO poll as the result of a 1-1 tie with Massachusetts on Friday night and 4-1 loss at St. Lawrence last night. . . . The Wildcats are 3-1-1 overall and 1-0-1 in Hockey East with Northeastern coming to town on Friday night. UNH plays at Northeastern on Saturday. . . . The Huskies, 5-0-1 overall and 4-0-0 in Hockey East, are off to a torrid start. They are ranked No. 9 and have beaten Providence, 4-0, and Boston College, 4-3, and swept a pair at Maine over the weekend, 5-0 and 2-1. . . . Colorado College is No. 1, followed by BC and Boston University. Denver is No. 4 and Minnesota No. 5. Vermont is the fifth Hockey East team in the poll at No. 14.
The UNH football team, 6-1 overall and 3-1 on the Colonial Athletic Association, climbed one spot to No. 9 in the Sports Network poll of Football Championship Subdivision teams released today. The Wildcats, coming off a 42-14 win over Towson, play Hofstra at home on Saturday. Hofstra is 3-5 overall, 3-1 in the league. . . . Six CAA teams are now in the poll’s Top 16, starting with No. 1 James Madison. Villanova is No. 7 and Richmond No. 8, and Massachusetts at No. 15 and William & Mary at No. 16 follow UNH. . . . After Hofstra, UNH plays back-to-back games at Villanova on Nov. 8 and at home against UMass on Nov. 15. Villanova is 5-2 and lost to James Madison, 23-19, on Saturday when the Dukes completed a wild 35-yard pass for a touchdown on the game’s final play. UMass is 5-3.
The UNH men’s hockey team, after Friday night’s 1-1 tie with Massachusetts, is off to Canton, N.Y. today. The Wildcats will stop at Norwich University this afternoon to practice and then continue on to St. Lawrence University. . . . The Wildcats and the Saints play tomorrow night at 7:30 in a game that will be televised on ESPNU. The game was originally scheduled for 3 p.m., before TV picked it up. . . . The Wildcats will be looking for a little revenge. Last year, they led the Saints 5-3 midway through the third period and ended up losing 6-5 in Durham. Goalie Brian Foster, who has been superb for UNH to start this season, had 20 saves and took that loss.
The men’s and women’s basketball teams hope folks attending the UNH-Towson football game on Saturday stop by Lundholm Gymnnasium for a few bit afterwards. . . . The Wildcats plan a tip-off celebration for about 3:30 _ or right after the football game _ that will include giveaways, a slam dunk contest, a three-point shot competition, an autograph session and other entertainment. Season tickets will be on sale for $25 and a UNH student will get a chance to win $10,000 worth of tuition. . . . The men’s team plays an exhibition against WPI on Saturday, Nov. 8 at 1 p.m. and the women have one scheduled for the next day against Bentley at 1. . . . The men open the regular season on Sunday, Nov. 16 with a home game against Suffolk at 1 p.m., and play Harvard on Nov. 19 at 7 p.m., also at home. . . . The women open the regular season at home against Bryant on Nov. 14 at 7 p.m.
The No. 4-ranked UNH men’s hockey team, 3-0-0 overall and 1-0-0 in Hockey East, entertains Massachusetts on Friday night at the Whittemore Center. Massachusetts improved to 2-1-0 overall with a 6-0 win at Rensselaer last night and UNH will be its first league game. Minuteman junior goalie Dan Meyers had 25 saves for his first career shutout against RPI. . . . UNH won two of three games over UMass in the regular season last year and swept the Minutemen in a pair of games in the Hockey East quarterfinals. . . . After UMass, UNH heads to St. Lawrence for a Sunday night game with the Saints that will be shown on ESPNU. St. Lawrence is 2-2-0.
The UNH men’s hockey and football teams moved up in national polls released this afternoon. . . . After a 1-0 win over Rensselaer on Friday night and 2-1 win over Hockey East rival Boston University on Sunday, the hockey team jumped two spots in the USCHO poll to No. 4. . . . Room at the top opened when Northeastern upset No. 1 Boston College, 4-3, on Saturday night. Colorado College moved up to No. 1 and Denver No. 2 and BC slipped to No. 3. . . . Michigan is fifth and BU sixth. . . . The 5-1 Wildcats advanced a spot to No. 10 in the Sports Network football poll after Saturday’s 33-21 win over Northeastern. . . . UNH is the fourth of six Colonial Athletic Association teams in the Top 25. . . . James Madison is No. 1, Villanova No. 7 and Richmond No. 9 and, after UNH, Massachusetts is No. 17 and William & Mary No. 23. . . . The Wildcats play Towson at home on Saturday and games at Villanova (Nov.  and home against Massachusetts the next weekend are on the schedule.
Towson is up next for the University of New Hampshire football team. The Tigers are 3-4 and were idle last this weekend. They beat Rhode Island, 37-32, in their last game on Oct. 11. . . . Towson’s other wins were against Columbia, 31-24, and Morgan State, 21-16. The Tigers have lost to Northeastern, 35-17, Coastal Carolina, 31-3, Richmond, 45-14, and Navy, 41-13. . . . They think pass first. They average 267.4 yards a game passing and 59.3 yards a game on the ground. Senior quarterback Sean Schaefer has completed 164 of his 251 passes (65.3 percent) for 1,853 yards and 13 touchdowns. He has been intercepted nine times. . . . After Towson, the Wildcats have Hofstra at home. They close the regular season with games at Villanova on Nov. 8, home against Massachusetts on Nov. 15 and at Maine on Nov. 22. . . . UNH improved to 5-1 with its 33-21 win over Northeastern yesterday. The Wildcats were ranked No. 11 in the country last week.
The UNH men’s hockey team gets back at it with a pair of home games this weekend. Rensselaer is in tonight and BU arrives for a game Sunday at 5. . . . Rensselaer lost its opener 4-1 to Vermont. BU beat North Dakota, 5-1, and Michigan State, 2-1, in the Icebreaker Tournament it hosted last weekend. . . . Junior Brian Foster of Pembroke made 30 saves in UNH’s 5-1 win over Wisconsin in its opener at the Whittemore Center. . . . “He’ll be the backbone for us this year,” said defenseman Joe Charlebois. “He was very composed. The shots he did see he handled very well, he didn’t juggle them or anything like that. It’s real easy when you have a goalie like that behind you that you feel confident in, knowing that he’ll back you up.”
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