DURHAM -- Sarah Albrecht had a great career at Northwestern, helping the Wildcats become a powerhouse in women’s lacrosse. She is still a successful player on the international stage.

Now, as coach, she hopes to lead the University of New Hampshire team on the same path.

With July winding down, things are starting to heat up again in Durham.

UNH football coach Sean McDonnell and two of his captains, linebacker Matt Evans and running back Dontra Peters, are in Baltimore this morning for the Colonial Athletic Association’s Media Day that kick-starts the 2012 season.

In more football news, another piece of the 2013 football schedule fell into place when deputy director of athletics Steve Metcalf said that UNH’s Football Bowl Subdivision game for next season will be against Central Michigan of the Mid-American Conference.

And last week, the school introduced Albrecht, who most recently was the associate head coach at the University of Massachusetts for the last two seasons.

“We think we got a good one,” said Metcalf, who headed the search committee to find a replacement for Michael Daly, the coach the last three seasons.

Albrecht, who turned 29 last month, has a resume that certainly backs up the statement.

She moved on from Braintree, Mass., and Thayer Academy to help Northwestern to back-to-back NCAA championships in 2005 and 2006 and won a World Cup with the United States Senior National team in Prague in 2009. She is competing with the national team at the North America Challenge Cup in Ontario this weekend and hopes to play in the World Cup again next summer in Canada.

Albrecht thinks UNH fits her well.

“It was very appealing,” she said. “The location, the academics and the blue collar feel of the athletics. The coaches and player have an attitude that fits my personality: a hard-work, nose-to-the-grindstone mentality. UMass was very similar. It’s not like something is going to be handed to you on a silver platter. You have to work for it. I love that.”

Albrecht, who was an assistant at Harvard for three years before going to UMass, was at the top of UNH’s wish list from the moment she said she was interested, Metcalf said.

“We’re close with people at UMass and Harvard and it wasn’t difficult to get information and background on her,” he said. “Everyone spoke very highly of her, her knowledge of the game, her ability to teach the game, her leadership qualities. They spoke about the quality of her character, clearly things that will be good in recruiting.”

Get this: She was a captain in each of her four seasons at Northwestern. The school was bringing back lacrosse and Kelly Amonte Hiller, who also went to Thayer, brought Albrecht in as part of her first freshman class and she was a captain that year. She sat out a season with an injury and was a key piece of title teams in her final two seasons.

Albrecht will be charged with getting UNH back to being competitive in America East and beyond.

“Maybe good things will happen this year, maybe next year,” Albrecht said. “I don’t want to put a limit on it. We obviously want to win the America East championship and push it further than that in the national tournament. That’s definitely a position I want to put the team in.”

It’s what Metcalf and director of athletics Marty Scarano are looking for as well.

“That’s our goal,” Metcalf said. “We’re not interested in being good in the conference. We’re interested in being at the top. We think we made a statement with this hire.”

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UNH will open the 2013 football season at Central Michigan on Sept. 7. The other non-conference games that year are scheduled to be home against Colgate on Sept. 14 and at Rhode Island on Sept. 21.

“Central Michigan fits well in our schedule,” Metcalf said. “Those are the games we should be trying to get.”

The Wildcats have played several MAC teams as their “money games” against Football Bowl Subdivision foes through the years. UNH plays in the Football Championship Subdivision and steps up a level and receives a cash payment to play the FBS schools.

UNH lost to Toledo of the MAC, 58-22, in its first game last season.

The Wildcats played at Central Michigan in 2003 and lost, 40-33. The next year they beat Rutgers, starting a streak of five straight wins against FBS opponents.

UNH opens the 2012 season at Holy Cross on Thursday, Aug. 30 at 7:30 p.m. The Wildcats are at Minnesota on Sept. 8 at noon and play Central Connecticut at home on Sept. 15, also at noon.

They begin the CAA portion of their schedule at Old Dominion on Sept. 22.

Allen Lessels covers UNH athletics for the New Hampshire Union Leader and Sunday News. He may be reached at alessels@unionleader.com.