The UMBC women's soccer team (5-6-4, 1-3-2 America East) returns to action on Sunday afternoon when they host New Hampshire (4-1-1, 7-5-1 America East) at Retriever Soccer Park. The opening whistle is set for 12:00 p.m. and will be broadcast on AmericaEast.TV. The Retrievers will also honor some of their favorite professors prior to the contest.
 
NOTABLE

• The Retrievers currently own the final America East playoff spot with five points as they enter Sunday's contest against the Wildcats. UMBC will then close out the regular season next Thursday evening at 6:00 p.m. against Binghamton (10/27) on Senior Day.
• UMBC Head Coach Vanessa Mann announced that she has accepted a position with US Soccer and will step down from her leadership of the Retrievers' program at the conclusion of the 2022 season.
• The Dawgs fell on the road to UMass Lowell, 2-0, in their most recent outing on Sunday afternoon. The River Hawks scored a pair of first half goals and held on for the victory.
• UMBC blanked NJIT for a key league victory on October 13. The Black and Gold produced the game-winner with 12:16 remaining on an own goal off a throw in deep in NJIT territory. Senior midfielder Caroline Koutsos (Boyds, Md., Our Lady of Good Counsel) lobbed a high-arching service towards the goal and Highlander keeper Molly Saylor let the ball get over her head, leaving her out of position. The ball came down directly off the head of a defender and was directed straight into the lower left side of the open goal.
• Senior goalkeeper Morgan McGruder (Overland Park, Kan., Blue Valley North) recorded a career-high 13 saves in the NJIT contest and now has made 78 stops on the campaign. It was also the third-highest total made by a conference keeper in 2022.
• McGruder leads the America East with seven clean sheets and is third with a .830 save percentage. She is currently second with a 1.07 goals against average.
• Sophomore back Abby Joseph (Lexington Park, Md., Great Mills) is eighth on the circuit with three assists this season.
•  Meghan McKye (Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Northern Secondary School) leads UMBC with five goals, which is good for eighth in the America East. The junior striker is also eighth overall in points (11). Her three game-winners are tied for tops in the league.      

A GLANCE AT THE WILDCATS     

• New Hampshire, Binghamton, UMass Lowell and Maine are currently all tied at the top of the conference standings with 13 points apiece.
• The Wildcats, who have won three straight contests, are fourth in the league in goals scored (21) and have yielded just 13 goals in 13 contests this season.
• Sophomore forward Meghan Guarente leads UNH with five goals while junior back Ella Dudley and graduate student Maddy Warren, a striker, have each hit the back of the net three times.
• Guarente and junior midfielder Anna Hewlett are both tied for the league-lead with four assists.
• Guarente is third on the circuit with 14 points.
• Goalkeeper Cat Sheppard, a graduate student, is third in the league with a 1.09 goals against average.

THE ALL-TIME SERIES

• This will be the 19^th meeting in the series with UNH holding a 12-4-3 record against the Retrievers.
• UMBC has dropped three straight matches versus the Wildcats and failed to get on the board in all three of those contests.
• The Dawgs last victory in the series came on October 22, 2017, a 3-1 triumph at Retriever Soccer Park. 2021 graduate Erin Stevenson scored all three goals for the Retrievers.