By Jason Richland
One hundred and fifteen minutes of field hockey could not settle it. One round, four shooters each, of penalty strokes could not settle it. But in the second round of penalty strokes Northeastern outscored the formerly unbeaten University of Connecticut in a battle of top-ranked teams to keep Northeastern’s winning streak alive.
“We gained a lot of confidence coming out of that win,” senior Liane Dixon said. “It was a great game. Both teams were doing battle out there and we were lucky enough to come out on top.”
After regulation, overtime and two rounds of penalty strokes, senior goalie Diana Nelson turned away seven of 10 penalty strokes in the overtime while junior Jay Quinn, senior Mari Creatini, junior Lauren Edelmeier and sophomore Sarah Eckhoff all netted their strokes to earn the victory over UConn.
“Diana [Nelson] came up huge,” Dixon said. “I definitely think we are going to be moving up.”
Nelson was named the America East player of the week.
“Diana [Nelson] played outstanding, she came up with big saves in a big game,” said NU head coach Cheryl Murtagh. “That is the kind of game we need to have.”
The Huskies rolled over the three opponents it faced this week, defeating sixth-ranked University of Connecticut 1-0, the University of Vermont 10-0 and the University of Maryland Baltimore County 7-0.
Riding the strength of a seven-game winning streak the Huskies dumped 17 goals in two games against America East opponents Vermont and UMBC to bring their America East record to 4-0 with 30 goals for the Huskies while allowing one goal against.
“We knew we had some pretty good talent. I am just glad that they are starting to put this together,” Murtagh said. “The goal has been to be the best defensive team every day, we have the ability to score but if you don’t have the defense, that is where you can get hurt.”
During the streak the Huskies have allowed just two goals and have scored 40 goals. Only two games remain in the season: America East match-ups on the road against Boston University on Sunday and Maine next Saturday.
Dixon led the way for the Huskies against UMBC, racking up three goals and four assists.
“She is smart and she is a good passer. She is unselfish she does a lot more than score,” Murtagh said. “Even if [Dixon] isn’t scoring she does so much for our team. A lot of people see the stats, but she does so much more than that for us on the forward line.”
Just seven minutes into the game Dixon assisted on Creatini’s sixteenth goal of the season. Thirteen minutes later she set up redshirt freshman Ashley Webber and, just before halftime, sophomore Whitney Shean scored on a Dixon pass.
In the second half, already leading 3-0, Dixon went right back to work, this time scoring three times in less than seven minutes to take the team lead in goals with 18 while assisting on another goal by Creatini.
Against Vermont on Friday at Sweeney Field the Huskies racked up a season-high 10 goals against the Catamounts and Creatini broke the all-time scoring record at NU, previously held by Kerri Bettenhauser, a total of 153 points. Creatini has 158 points on the season.
“Mari [Creatini] is a great player, she is a great leader and what she does on the field defines her as a player,” Dixon said. “She is my teammate and it is really an honor for her.”
The Huskies jumped on top of Vermont less than two minutes into the game when Shean connected with Quinn for the first score of the game. Dixon scored twice in a row and added a third following goals by Shean and Eckhoff.
Shean opened up the second half with another goal before Creatini made history with the 153rd point of her Northeastern career.
Quinn scored another goal and Michaela O’Malley scored on a pass from Stephanie Casper to cap off the 10-0 rout.
The Huskies travel to Jack Berry Field in Cambridge to face Boston University at 1 p.m. on Sunday to break the tie at the top of the America East in the penultimate game of the season.
