Leading scorer and last year’s NCAA championship hero Maximilian Kissel will miss significant time due to an injury sustained in Vermont soccer’s 2-0 home victory over UMBC in the America East Conference opener last weekend.
During media availability on Wednesday, Oct. 1, Vermont head coach Rob Dow said Kissel is “out indefinitely” and will miss “somewhere between four and eight weeks.” Dow said he could not reveal the injury. During the win over UMBC, Kissel left the field in the second half and appeared to be favoring his right side.
Through 10 games for 7-0-3 Vermont, Kissel has team highs in goals (4) and points (11). He also has three assists. Last year, Kissel scored the overtime winner in the NCAA championship game to beat Marshall.
“(Kissel’s) positioning is always in and around the goal … and that’s hard to replace. You have to be patient,” Dow said.
Dow said Wednesday’s training session gave him confidence that Kissel’s teammates can fill that void up top. Dow singled out Philipp Kuhn, Bruno Imarenakhue and Gavin Stevenson from the Catamounts’ practice.
“We had a really good session … high intensity. But we have to do it again (Thursday) and Friday,” Dow said.
The Catamounts return to action at NJIT on Saturday, Oct. 4. They’ll also play at Harvard on Tuesday, Oct. 7 before returning home to face UMass Lowell on Saturday, Oct. 11.
Vermont soccer jumps up in the latest national poll
Vermont is back in the top five of the United Soccer Coaches top-25 national poll.
The Catamounts jumped to fourth in the nation, one spot ahead of America East rival Bryant (9-0-1). The latest poll was unveiled on Tuesday, Sept. 30. Last week, the Catamounts were slotted seventh; they opened the year as preseason No. 1.
Vermont and Bryant will face off on Saturday, Oct. 25 in Smithfield, Rhode Island.
Contact Alex Abrami at aabrami@freepressmedia.com. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter: @aabrami5.
