VESTAL, N.Y. - Freshman Allison Pfohl (Niskayuna, N.Y.) netted a hat trick and sophomore Megan MacDonald (Wayland, Mass.) added four points to lead the Vermont Catamounts past the Binghamton Bearcats, 13-9, in the America East opener for both teams.

Vermont collects its third straight win and improves to 5-3 overall and 1-0 in league play. Binghamton falls to 2-5 on the year and 0-1 in the conference.

"We had a slow start to the game, but progressively picked up the tempo as the game moved along," said Vermont head coach Jen Johnson. "At times we strayed from the game plan, but I was pleased that the team found a way to earn this win. Coming up with draw controls, spurred by Millar's play, was key for us in the second half and gave us the scoring opportunities we needed to open up the game a bit."

In a tightly contested first half that saw four lead changes, Binghamton led 5-4 after a goal from Lisa Illig at the 14:14 mark. Vermont retook the lead, 6-5, after back-to-back goals by Pfohl, at the 13:02 mark. Another tally by Illig with 11:08 remaining knotted the game up at 6-6. The Catamounts scored with 1:08 left before the half, off the stick of Kristen Millar (Whitby, Ontario), to give UVM a 7-6 lead at the break. Senior Sarah DeStefano (Elliot, Maine) earned an assist on Millar's goal.

Binghamton scored the opening goal of the second half to tie the game up, 7-7, but the Catamounts limited the Bearcats to just two more goals over the final 30 minutes. UVM outscored Binghamton 6-3, behind goals from six different players, in the second stanza to go on and post its third straight victory.

MacDonald scored twice and added two assists to contribute to the Catamounts offense. Millar, DeStefano, Samantha Stern (Cherry Hills, N.J.) and Kaitlyn Johnson (Meriden, N.H.) each added two goals.

Olivia Hatfield (Alpharetta, Ga.) made four saves to pick up the victory in the Vermont net.

Zuern and Illig each scored hat trick and Zuern added two assists to lead Binghamton. Emily Miller made 13 saves in the Bearcats net.

The Catamounts close out the weekend playing LeMoyne at Henninger High School in Syracuse, N.Y. Game time is set for 2:00 p.m.

GAME NOTES: Vermont improves to 7-1 versus Binghamton in the all-time series. Vermont out shot Binghamton 34-19 in the game. Senior Kristen Millar leads the country in draw controls per game (5.29) and she collected 10 more versus the Bearcats. She is 31 draw controls shy of breaking the all-time NCAA Division I mark for draw controls. She is also 10 goals shy of becoming the all-time leading goal scorer at UVM and extended her consecutive points streak to 55 straight games.

2009-03-21