By Katie Zigelman
The field hockey team walked away from Columbus Day weekend with a pair of victories after defeating Harvard 1-0 and Delaware 4-2 at Sweeney Field to improve its winning streak to four games.
“The team worked hard,” head coach Cheryl Murtagh said. “We scored some good goals against Delaware and held strong defensively against Harvard. We didn’t let them get close to the goal. Both sides are doing great right now.”
Junior goalkeeper Lizzie Priest earned the ninth shut out of her career Monday, sending the Crimson back to Cambridge with a 1-0 loss. The Huskies came out strong straight from the beginning and kept control throughout the entire game.
Senior midfielder Kaela Barker scored the only goal of the game at 29:49. She shot off a penalty corner assisted by junior midfielder Allison Conti. This was Barker’s third goal of the season.
Before Harvard came across the river, Northeastern beat the Delaware Blue Hens 4-2. Junior forward Crystal Poland scored the first goal of the game Friday, just 1:36 into the game. She was assisted by junior forward Nicky Graham and senior forward Carolyn Malloy. That was Poland’s 20th goal of the 2011 season.
Delaware tied the game at 1-1 off a penalty corner. Senior midfielder Pam Aldridge responded with a Husky goal less than three minutes later, assisted by redshirt freshman Kelly Dunn.
Sophomore forward Lindsay Bennett scored her first goal of the season to give the Huskies a 3-1lead at 27:33. Barker assisted on this goal. Graham also made her first goal of the season during this game at 32:47.
Delaware tried to even out the score at 36:17 but the Huskies held tight defensively and concluded the game with a 4-2 decision.
Priest made 11 saves, six of which were in the second half. Despite the final score, the Blue Hens outshot the Huskies 23-18 and earned eight penalty corners compared to the Huskies’ five.
Priest made 11 saves, six of which were in the second half. Despite the final score, the Blue Hens outshot the Huskies 23-18 and earned eight penalty corners compared to the Huskies’ five.
While Graham has been nationally ranked (15th in the nation) for assists for nearly all of the season, she scored her first goal over the weekend.
“It feels great to help the team and keep us where we are nationally ranked,” Graham said of her 15th ranked squad.
With these two games, the Huskies advanced to 9-5 overall, 3-2 in the Colonial Athletic Association and 5-0 for all home games. The team is hoping to continue its winning streak tomorrow when it plays Boston College for the last of its five-game-home-stand. This will be the only game of the week.
“The team is really excited for Boston College right now although the break will be a good one,” Murtagh said.
Graham confirmed the team’s excitement for the BC game and also talked about the team’s goal of winning the CAA.
“This is our year,” Graham said. “We are going to get it done and BC’s not going to stand in our way. We are going to continue our home streak.”
