Yellowjackets enjoy banner weekend

Kerry Mayhew’s four-goal weekend helped propel the University of Wisconsin-Superior women’s hockey team to a season-opening sweep of Hamline University at the Vandais Heights (Minn.) Sports Complex.

On Friday night, Mayhew scored a pair of goals in the Yellowjackets’ 6-1 victory, and she followed that with another two-goal performance in Saturday afternoon’s 4-1 triumph.

Junior goalie Shanley Peters made a combined 31 saves in the series for the Yellowjackets.

UWS put 42 shots on Hamline goaltender Caitlin Nosanov on Saturday while Kaiti Graham and Kerry Mayhew added a goal each.

The Yellowjackets set the tone early on Friday night with Bailey Lane and Ashley Birdsall scoring within 12 seconds of each other in the opening minute of the game.

Hamline’s Jordan Verleye scored 4:03 into the second period before UWS finished the scoring with three more goals in the second period and Karen Larson’s goal with 36 seconds remaining in the third.

Mayhew scored the first two goals in the middle stanza and Mara Teschendorf scored the third.

Peters had 19 saves to 34 for Hamline’s Sarah Schneekloth.

On Saturday, Graham scored with 1:17 left in the first period and Mayhew made it 2-0 3:25 into the third period.

Haleigh Bolton scored Hamline’s goal on a power play with 11:39 remaining while Dani Schultz and Mayhew completed the scoring at 14:10 and 19:11 of the third period.

Peters had 12 saves and Caitlin Nosanov had 42 for the Pipers.

’JACKET JOTTINGS: Mayhew scored eight goals and had a team-leading 22 assists last year for UWS (2-0). … UWS, which played at Gustavus Adolphus Tuesday night, plays at UW-Eau Claire at 7 p.m. today and Saturday. ... Superior is ranked No. 8 in the latest USCHO.com Division III Women’s Hockey poll. Norwich (0-0-2) is No. 1 and UW-River Falls (0-0) is No. 6.

Friday’s Game

UW-Superior 2-3-1—6

Hamline 0-1-0—1

First Period: 1. UWS, Bailey Lane (Alison Shrift), :44. 2. UWS, Ashley Birdsall (Schrift, Graham), :56.

Second Period: 3. H, Jordan Verleye (Ashley Maskel, Chelsea Koehn), 4:03; 4. UWS, Mayhew 1 (Schultz Shrift) , 4:48. 5. UWS, Mayhew 2 (Graham, Schultz), 12:07. 6. UWS, Mara Teschendorf (Graham, Kaskiw), 15:55.

Third Period: 7. UWS, Karen Larson (Kelsey Firkus), 9:24.

Saves: Shanley Peters, UWS 6-2-11—19. Sarah Schneekloth, H 13-11-10—34.

Saturday’s Game

UW-Superior 1-0-3—4

Hamline 0-0-1—1

First Period: 1. UWS, Kaiti Graham (Sheryl Kaskiw, Kerry Mayhew), 18:43.

Second Period: No scoring.

Third Period: 2. UWS, Mayhew 3 (Jane Astrup, Dani Schultz), 3:25. 3. H, Haleigh Bolton (Megan Campbell, Nina Chase), 8:21 (pp). 4. UWS, Dani Schultz (Lynne Larson), 14:10. 5. Mayhew 4 (Schultz, Chelsey Wierschern), 19:11.

Saves: Shanley Peters, UWS 5-3-4—12. Caitlin Nosanov, H 15-13-14—42.

Volleyball

The UWS volleyball team won its first conference match of the season Friday night at UW-Platteville then made it two in a row with a win Saturday afternoon at UW-La Crosse.

The Yellowjackets defeated UWP 3-2 (22-25, 25-20, 25-19, 18-25, 15-12) then downed UWLC 3-1 (28-26, 24-26, 25-13, 25-21).

Against Platteville, Vikki Vinokur led the Yellowjackets with 18 kills and Nikki Gosson added 17 to the attack. Keely Deadrick dished out 45 assists and Kitty Tynen and Farrah Wirtz made 23 and 22 digs, respectively.

Leeann Mizgalski and Stephanie Kirchner each made 15 kills for the Pioneers (21-11, 2-5).

On Saturday, Nikki Gosson had 13 kills and Keely Deadrick totaled 36 set assists in Superior’s win over UWLC.

Vikki Vinokur added 10 kills in the Yellowjackets, who finish with records of 19-14 overall and 2-6 in the WIAC.

Women’s Soccer

Five different women scored goals as the Yellowjackets defeated host Mount Mary College 5-1 on Sunday in their regular-season finale in Milwaukee.

Proctor’s Samantha Nelson, Cloquet’s Sarah Johnson and Hermantown’s Chelsea Cossin got in on the scoring for UWS, along with teammates McKenzie Krohn and Shelby Coombs in the nonconference game.

The Yellowjackets (7-13 overall, 0-8 Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference) took a 3-0 lead at halftime and held a 33-3 edge in shots for the game over Mount Mary (8-7).

On Friday afternoon in Milwaukee, Whitney Zegarski and Shelby Coombs scored goals in the 73rd and 83rd minutes, respectively, to lead the Yellowjackets to a 2-1 nonconference victory over Alverno College.

Nava Moniriarani gave the Inferno a 1-0 lead in the 66th minute, but the Yellowjackets took over the rest of the game, outshooting Alverno 28-5 overall.

Yellowjacket goalkeeper Kalea Hatlewick made one save, while Samantha Robinson stopped 13 shots for Alverno (6-14).

Sarah Eck scored two goals and Anna Strasser notched another to lead UW-Platteville to a 3-0 WIAC victory over visiting UWS on Saturday afternoon.

Alexandra Paige stopped six shots for the Yellowjackets, while Cassie Blatz made three saves for the Pioneers (6-11, 2-6).

Men’s Soccer

Trevor Laroche-Theune’s second-half goal gave UWS a 1-0 WIAC win at UW-Platteville on Saturday.

Hermantown’s Nick Early earned the assist.

Yellowjacket goalkeeper Matt Elder stopped 10 shots, while Ian Christensen made one save for the Pioneers (13-3-1 overall, 2-1 WIAC).

The Yellowjackets (11-6-2, 2-1-1) conclude their season at 4 p.m. today at Public Schools Stadium against Finlandia University.

Athletes honored

Matt Elder and senior middle hitter Nikki Gosson were honored by the WIAC in their respective sports this week.

Elder, a goalkeeper, was named the WIAC Men’s Soccer Defensive Athlete of the Week honors while Gosson wrapped up her collegiate volleyball career by being named the WIAC Volleyball Athlete of the Week.

For the week Elder was 2-0 with a 1.02 goals against average and a .882 save percentage.

“After a bit of a slow start Matt really found his game as the season has gone on. He’s become a leader on the back end and that’s very comforting for me and the guys,” UWS coach Joe Mooney said. “With the number of injuries we’ve had this year, we’ve had a lot of different players in different situations that they might not be used to. To have Matt back there helps ease the transition for some of them.

“The way he played last week, the way he stepped up when we needed him to speaks volumes about his leadership and work ethic. I have no problem saying that he was the best player in the conference last week and he deserved this honor.”

Elder has a 10-5-2 record with a 1.25 goals against average and a .792 save percentage.

Gosson helped the Yellowajckets to wins over UW-Platteville and UW-La Crosse.

“The WIAC is a tough conference, so anytime you can get an award from the conference it is an honor,” UWS coach Lynne Deadrick said. “Nikki has worked really hard over her four years here to make a difference, to get better and be one of our best players and one of our leaders. All of that hard work really came through in her play last weekend. What a way to wrap up the year. She is very deserving of this award from the conference.”

In 2012 she established new career highs in kills (284), attack percentage (.270), service aces (26), digs (93) and blocks (62). Her kill and block totals led the Yellowjackets.

For her career, Gosson appeared in 125 matches, posting 832 kills, 47 assists, 66 service aces, 235 digs and 222 blocks.

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