All eyes on Endicott women’s soccer

Senior back Clare Mansfield, a former standout at Stoneham High, and her teammates will not have it any other way.

That’s the price you pay as defending league champions, an NCAA Division 3 tournament team, and the No. 1 pick in the conference’s preseason poll.

“Every game this season is going to be a big game, especially in conference,” Mansfield said. “We’re the favorite to win the CCC championship again and that puts a giant target on our backs.”

Mansfield, backline mate Betsy Albiani, a fellow Stoneham alum, and the rest will see what they can do about starting a new string of titles and NCAA tournament appearances.

After qualifying for NCAAs in coach Jodi Kenyon’s first five seasons as head coach (2005--09), the Gulls failed to earn berths the next three seasons.

Then came last year’s dramatic run through the CCC playoffs with overtime wins over Curry (quarterfinals) and Wentworth in the (semifinals), and a championship game triumph that came down to penalty kicks against neighbor and rival Gordon College.

Thanks in large part to a couple of superb saves by Katie Donnelly on Gordon penalty kick attempts, the Gulls had their title and headed back to the D3 tournament.

“It was greatest feeling I’ve ever had on any team I’ve ever been on,” Mansfield said. “We were all about the dramatic finishes last year.”

Endicott, which returns its top six scorers, teams up Mansfield and Albiani again as backs. Ashley Mueskes, junior midfielder out of Georgetown, adds to the mix. Donnelly is back for her senior year in net.

“Clare’s been a rock back there the last two years,” Kenyon said. “Betsy’s a strong, solid smart kid and very, very composed and smart with the ball on her feet. And Ashley’s been a tremendous addition. She’s a very smart, technical player and the type of player you don’t always notice on the field, but she makes other players look good.”

Mansfield and Albiani continue a Stoneham pipeline to Endicott. “I knew I wanted a school not too far from home, but I didn’t want to be too close, either,” Mansfield said. “And they had the type of major I wanted.”

She started out in athletic training and then switched to exercise science.

Christine Silva played a role in the decision, too, when she told Mansfield how much she loved the school and the soccer program. The two had played together at Stoneham and ended up playing a couple of years together at Endicott as well.

Mansfield passed the message on to her lifelong friend, Albiani.

“We’ve played in town leagues pretty much since I was 8 years old,” Mansfield said. “We played together through elementary school and middle school and high school and our families are very close. My Dad (Jerry) used to coach us together.”

The familiarity has helped on the field.

“It makes it that much easier,” Mansfield said. “I don’t have to even think about where she’s going to be and I know if I go up the field for a ball, she’s going to cover for me. That’s one of the benefits of having played with someone for so long.”

Mansfield and Albiani will try to help the Gulls not only defend their title, but take the season another step or two.

Last year, the Gulls won their first-round game in the NCAAs against Scranton, 1-0, before losing in the second round Middlebury, 2-1, which advanced to the national semifinals.

“We definitely got a taste last year and we liked the taste,” Mansfield said. “I feel there’s pressure this year to do as well, if not better, than last year. I think it just pushes us and makes us work harder in practice. The goal is to win the conference again and go further in the NCAAs.”

Last year, Kenyon said, the team had graduated a huge senior class and expectations were not high and a slow start did little to change them.

Then the Gulls got rolling and kept it going right through the playoffs. They finished the season 16-6-2 overall and were 8-1 in conference play.

“We graduated seven seniors again last year, but we return several players who started most of the year and with a solid recruiting class. I feel we’re in a pretty good place to start the season,” Kenyon said. “It may be difficult to blend it all at the beginning. But it’s a good starting point for us.”

Rachel McCarthy of Reading, a senior transfer from the University of Massachusetts Lowell, and Nicole Wood, a freshman from Beverly, helped the 15th-ranked Louisville women’s field hockey team to an 11-2 rout of Saint Louis in their debut with the Cardinals last week. McCarthy started and had a couple of assists and Woods came off the bench and contributed a goal and an assist. McCarthy was a three-year standout at Lowell and major contributor to the River Hawks’ 2010 Division 2 national championship and 2012 runner-up finish. She sat out last year at Louisville. . . . Jenerrie Harris, the new women’s basketball coach at University of Massachusetts Lowell has added a couple of assistants to her staff. Chante Bonds, a 2005 Bentley graduate, spent the last four years as an assistant at Holy Cross. Kara Williamson joins the River Hawks after a stint as head coach at Rhode Island College. Lowell went 5-23 (4-14 in America East) last season under the direction of Sarah Behn in its first season of Division 1 play. Behn is now the head coach at Brown.

Allen Lessels can be reached at lessfam321@gmail.com.