Hudson Valley Quickstrike Lady Blues News Release - www.quickstrikefc.com

Friday, November 13, 2009

NEWBURGH, NY -- Six Hudson Valley Quickstrike Lady Blues players are involved in the NCAA postseason and fighting for national championships. Five of those players will look to capture the Division I College Cup, while 2009 W-League MVP Angelika Johansson is looking to bring Franklin Pierce University to Division II glory.

Amanda DaCosta, a native of Katonah, NY, and Erin McNulty helped lead the Florida State Seminoles (16-4-1) to an appearance in the ACC final on Sunday, where the Seminoles fell 3-0 to the University of North Carolina.

However, Florida State still earned one of the four No. 1 seeds in the field of 64 teams, joining North Carolina, Stanford and UCLA. The Seminoles will face Southeastern Louisiana (13-4-2) in their first-round match-up on Friday at 4:30 p.m. Eastern in Tallahassee, Fla.

Lady Blues midfielder Mercede Koning and No. 17 Brigham Young University (17-3-2) travel to Stanford, Calif. for a first-round match-up with UC-Santa Barbara (9-9-3) on Thursday at 7:30 p.m. Eastern. BYU fell to San Diego State on Saturday in the Mountain West Conference final.

Meanwhile, two Lady Blues players have been critical to helping the University of Connecticut (10-7-2) obtain an at-large bid into the tournament. Elise Fugowski and Campbell Hall, NY, native Brittany Taylor will travel to Chestnut Hill, Mass. as UCONN takes on Boston University (14-5-2) in their first-round game on Friday at 7 p.m. Eastern.

Both BYU and UCONN are also in the same bracket that is headlined by No. 1 overall seed Stanford (20-0-0).

Fugowski and Taylor have both started all 19 games for Connecticut this season. Taylor was recently named the Big East Defender of the Year and was named to the All-Big East First Team. On Thursday, Nov. 12, the Connecticut captain was also named to TopDrawerSoccer.com’s Second Team.

Texas A&M will serve as the host school of the College Cup semifinals and finals in College Station, Texas from December 4 – 6.

In Division II, the Hudson Valley’s leading scorer in 2009 is looking to lead Franklin Pierce University on a run of its own. Forward Angelika Johansson and her teammates will be in Bridgeport, Conn. on Friday for a match against Holy Family (13-8-1) at 1 p.m. The winner will take on Bridgeport University (16-1-3), which received a bye in the field of 48 teams.

The Division II Championship will be held in Tampa, Fla. from December 4 – 6.