By: Katie Zigelman, News Correspondent
The women’s field hockey team lost 4-0 at the hands of No. 5 University of Connecticut (UConn) last night, but head coach Cheryl Murtagh said she was not deterred by her squad’s effort.
“This game meant a lot,” Murtagh said. “We need to play at this pace for the rest of the season. We have the opportunities but we need to execute. Tonight, UConn had some nice shots that we should have had better defensive plays on. I want the team to have the confidence to know that we can play against tough teams like this.”
UConn jumped out to an early lead as midfielder Cara Silverman snuck her 10th goal of the season past sophomore goalkeeper Lizzie Priest 12:12 into the game. Silverman struck again 11 minutes later, deflecting a shot by teammate Melissa Gonzalez past Priest.
With 14 seconds left in the first half, UConn midfielder Ali Blankmeyer scored her ninth goal of the season. The Huskies of UConn added one more goal 10 minutes into the second half to seal the victory, when forward Bethany Semlear ripped a shot past Priest.
While losing 4-0 can be discouraging, sophomore forward Crystal Poland said it’s often beneficial for team development.
“Playing these tough teams helps us to improve because there is a higher ball speed that makes us work on reacting faster,” Poland said.
The University of Delaware defeated the Huskies in the end of the second half last Sunday. Poland scored the first goal of the game just 34 seconds into the second stanza after a scoreless first half. Poland leads the team with seven goals on the season.
But Poland said individual team statistics are not important to the team’s success.
“This is really a team sport so I only feel like I’m doing well if the team is doing well,” Poland said.
The Blue Hens made their two goals within eight minutes of each other later in the second half, ending the game 1-2.
Despite their loss, the Huskies outshot the Blue Hens 11-3 and made Delaware goalkeeper Noelle Diana work hard, making five saves. This was nothing new as Northeastern has out-shot its opponents in six of their past seven games.
Murtagh said making many shots on goal is something the team is working on.
“We need to execute on these shots,” Murtagh said. “The Delaware game was disappointing. We had opportunities that we should have taken especially because we were dominating the game in the first half.”
Friday, the Huskies came out on top, taking a 2-1 victory from the University of Towson. Murtagh said she was satisfied with the victory and the effort of her squad.
“Towson was great,” Murtagh said. “The kids really stepped it up and played well, and we scored some nice goals.”
Sophomore forward Nicky Graham scored both of the Huskies’ two goals in the first half. In the eighth minute, Graham buried home a rebound off her first shot, giving the Huskies an early lead.
Towson added a goal of its own when midfielder Tabi Hitch slapped one past Priest, but the tie was short-lived as Graham buried for a second time. This time, junior forward Carolyn Malloy assisted Graham for her team- leading eighth assist of the season.
“It felt good,” Graham said. “I was just glad that we were able to execute on our attack and actually score.”
The Huskies play tomorrow at Boston College and Sunday against Stanford University.
“These are two great regional opponents,” Murtagh said. “Hopefully we can get some wins under our belt as we get closer to the Colonial Athletic Association championship.”
Graham said the team just needs to stay positive if it wants to succeed.
“Everyone has a lot of talent on this team and we can get it done,” Graham said. “We just need to have confidence in ourselves and each other.”
