University of New England Varsity Club Athletics Hall of Fame
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BIDDEFORD, Maine -- The University of New England Varsity Club Athletics Hall of Fame held its 20th induction ceremony at the Harold Alfond Forum on Friday evening (Oct. 24), formally celebrating the 2025 Class of four UNE student-athletes. The night featured former Nor'easter stars in Ryan Bloom '20 [men's ice hockey], Kayla Burgess '18 [women's swimming], Matt McManus '06 [men's basketball], and Vonde Saunders '18 [field hockey].
 
Now, 75 individuals and seven teams have been inducted into the UNE Athletics Hall of Fame, which was established in 2005 to honor the very best in the combined history of St. Francis College, Westbrook College, and UNE.

Bloom (Northville, Mich.) is the third UNE men's ice hockey player enshrined, following teammates Trevor Fleurent and Brady Fleurent from 2024. Ice hockey previously existed from 1973-84; through 1979, it was under St. Francis College, which has three players, one coach, and a one-time group of three teams already inducted.

Before graduating in 2020 with a bachelor's degree in medical biology, Bloom was part of teams that combined to go 74-28-10 overall and 41-20-8 in Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) matches during his four seasons. Like Brady Fleurent, Bloom compiled numerous individual accolades during his time, including three American Hockey Coaches Association (AHCA) All-America selections (2nd Team in 2019-20), three All-New England picks, and was twice finalist for the Joe Concannon Award (best American-born player in the region). Additionally, he was a four-time All-CCC honoree, with three of those being 1st Team nods, and, as a senior captain, he was both the CCC Player of the Year and CCC Scholar-Athlete of the Year. Bloom stands atop the Nor'easter career records for goals (75), goals/game (0.68), power-play goals (29), shorthanded goals (7), and games played (110), while ranking second in points (169) and assists (94). On two occasions, he was an NCAA Statistical Champion, sharing the nation's lead in power-play goals (10) as a rookie in 2016-17 -- alongside Trevor Fleurent -- and then topping the country in shorthanded goals (5) in 2018-19, when he netted a program-best 22 goals that season. Bloom's second-highest scoring total (20) came as a first-year, which included a highlight during the regular season at Endicott College, when he won a center-ice faceoff to himself with 0:08 on the clock in overtime, split the defenders, and roofed the game-winner with 3.3 seconds remaining to upend the ranked Gulls. He holds a piece of the program game records for points (6) and assists (4), as well as the CCC postseason standards for the Nor'easters in points (4) and goals (3). Along the way with Bloom, the team captured one league championship (2019), a pair of NCAA bids (2019 quarterfinals, 2018 first round), made two other appearances in the conference final, and secured one regular-season crown (2020). UNE booked its first national ranking in the latter half of 2018, and stayed among the top 15 programs for another 44 polls through 2020 (all but one week).

In 2020, Bloom became UNE's fourth student-athlete recognized by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) on a national level, as part of the Academic All-America® Men's At-Large Second Team. That came on the heels of a third Academic All-District® accolade. He was also UNE's Senior Scholar-Athlete of the Year.

Burgess (Kingston, Mass.) is the second swimmer inducted into the Hall of Fame. While completing a bachelor's degree in marine biology in 2018, she was a four-year member of the program at UNE and a senior captain. She saw the squad through a 26-10 record in dual meets and a program-best-tying 5th-place showing out of 21 institutions at the 2017 New England Intercollegiate Swimming & Diving Association (NEISDA) Championships. Burgess accumulated eight solo All-New England performances during her four tries at the NEISDA meet, including a spot on the podium in the 2018 400-Individual Medley event, claiming 3rd place. She finished in the top eight three times in both the 100-butterfly and 200-butterfly, with highs of 4th place in each in 2018. Burgess also snagged another medal in the 2016 200-freestyle relay. She still maintains a pair of UNE records in the 200-fly (2:13.80) and 400-IM (4:46.48) -- set in 2018 -- and was just displaced this year from the team mark in the 500-free (5:21.35). In these three races, Burgess owns either two or three of the program's five fastest times.

In 2018, Burgess was recognized by CoSIDA as part of the Academic All-America® Women's At-Large Second Team -- the second Nor'easter ever with such notation, at the time. She was also UNE's Senior Scholar-Athlete of the Year.

McManus (Cumberland, R.I.) graduated with a bachelor's degree in business administration in 2006, after starring for the Nor'easters over four seasons of basketball. He averaged double digits in scoring all four years, and led the squad in three, to finish his career with 1,506 total points -- a mark that stood as 8th-best in program records at the time, and has only been surpassed once since. The team captain as a senior also averaged 14.6 points, 3.9 rebounds, and 2.0 assists across 103 contests. In addition to still being in the top 10 of program ranks for total steals (149) and free throw percentage (.803), McManus had the most production from behind the three-point arc, draining 283 attempts (3rd) at a clip of 2.7/game (4th) and with 42 percent efficiency (2nd). McManus is one of just five multiple-time All-CCC honorees within the program, and still holds UNE's leading postseason performance during CCC tournament action, netting a game-high 24 points on 10 made field goals as the Nor'easters knocked off South Division top seed, Curry College, in the 2004 quarterfinals. His personal-best of 30 points came as a senior, behind seven treys.

McManus also played two seasons with the men's golf team.

Saunders (Center Conway, N.H.) wrapped up a bachelor's degree in elementary education in 2018, following one of the most productive offensive careers that fueled the greatest period of success in the history of the field hockey program. To date, she maintains sizable leads on UNE's career goals and points lists, with 64 and 152, respectively, and her per-game rates (0.71 goals/game, 1.69 points/game) are second and third. Saunders was a National Field Hockey Coaches Association (NFHCA) All-America 3rd Team selection as a junior in 2016, a two-time 1st Team all-region pick, and a three-time All-CCC 1st Team honoree. She was part of the winningest class in program history (72-23 overall, 45-3 CCC), with four consecutive regular-season crowns (2014, 2015, 2016, 2017), just as many conference championships, and the same amount of NCAA tournament victories. During her 22-goal campaign as a junior, she notched one of the three CCC postseason hat tricks by a UNE player as the Nor'easters squashed Western New England University in the final. As a senior, the team captain factored in both scores as UNE rallied to beat Saint Joseph's College in the opening round of the NCAA tournament. Saunders was also UNE's Female Athlete of the Year in 2017-18.

More recently, during the 2021-22 seasons, Saunders assisted the UNE squad to back-to-back undefeated years in CCC action. She served as Interim Head Coach for the last seven games of 2021, and then the Nor'easters won their latest league title in 2022.