Watertown, Massachusetts, junior All-American earns weekly honors for second time this season
NE-10 Field Hockey Weekly Release
EASTON, Mass. (October 13, 2014) – Stonehill College junior All-American Erika Kelly (Watertown, Massachusetts/Watertown) has been named the Northeast-10 Conference Player of the Week for field hockey by the league office this afternoon.
Kelly earns the weekly honors for the second time this season (fifth career) after leading Stonehill to a 3-1 comeback win over rival Bentley University on Saturday in its lone game of the week. She scored a pair of second half goals, including the game-winner, as the Skyhawks erased a halftime deficit with three goals in the final 35 minutes. Kelly's first goal 9:02 into the second half put Stonehill in front and then she added an insurance marker with a penalty stroke in the 51st minute as the Skyhawks scored three times in the opening 15:01 of the frame.
Kelly leads Stonehill in scoring with 26 points on a team-high 11 goals and four assists, ranking second in both the NE-10 and NCAA Division II for points and goals. She also ranks seventh in the NE-10 and 13th nationally for assists, adding one game winning goal and converting both penalty strokes attempted for the year. Kelly has scored at least a goal in six of Stonehill's eight games this season, including a career-high nine points with a career-best four goals in the Skyhawks 8-7 overtime win against then 8th-ranked East Stroudsburg University on September 7.
Kelly was a consensus first team All-America selection following her sophomore season in which she led Division II with a program and Northeast-10 record 38 goals to go with two assists for a program and NE-10 record matching 78 points. She netted a program-record and NE-10 high ten gamewinning goals, including two in overtime, and was a unanimous first team All-Northeast-10 selection. Kelly's 1.81 goals per game is a new Division II record, while her 3.71 points per game also led the country and her point total shared the Division II lead. She finished just two goals shy of the NCAA Division II single-season record of 40 by Jamie Vanartsdalen of Bloomsburg (Pa.) University in 2008 and recorded at least a point in 19 of her 21 games played.
Kelly has played 48 career games at Stonehill and ranks eighth in NE-10 history with her program-record 57 career goals, while her 122 career points are good for second in program history behind Caitlin Gleason's, '08, 132 points and tenth all-time in NE-10 history. She earned a spot on the Conference's All-Rookie team in 2012.
Stonehill (7-1, 2-0 NE-10), ranked fourth in last week's Penn Monto/National Field Hockey Coaches Association (NFHCA) Division II poll, is back in action on Friday, October 17, when it continues its five game home stand with a key NE-10 clash with sixth-ranked LIU Post, the defending regular season and tournament champions in the Conference, for its Purple & White Game at W.B. Mason Stadium at 6 p.m.
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