By Andy MacDougall, News Correspondent
Freshman forward Deirdre Duke tallied two second-half goals and sophomore midfielder Caroline Judge netted two goals in her home state as the Huskies put up a 5-0 shutout over the University of Delaware Blue Hens on Friday.
“We’ve been working a lot in practice and in games on playing the full 70 minutes,” Judge said. “In the Harvard game (Oct. 3, a 4-1 win) we lost our intensity a little in second half and some games we haven’t put the full 70 minutes together. In Delaware, we did a pretty good job of picking up the intensity and playing our game for the full game.”
Following their game against Harvard, head coach Cheryl Murtagh said the Huskies put together arguably their most complete game of the season on Friday against the Blue Hens.
“I know that we have different challenges in different games,” Murtagh said. “And I think every game we put a challenge to ourselves and that was one of them–to play well at both ends. We want to have a strong defensive game and keep our back line, and I do think we achieved that goal [against Delaware].”
Less than five minutes into the contest, senior forward Crystal Poland continued her incredible season with a goal off a penalty corner. Poland’s 19th goal of the season put the Huskies on top, 1-0.
Five minutes later, Judge notched a goal off a shot from senior forward Lindsay Bennett. At the 22:35 mark, Judge knocked another loose ball into the Delaware net to give the Huskies a comfortable 3-0 break.
Judge, from nearby Lewes, Del., was a four-year standout at Cape Henlopen High School. With the University of Delaware only an hour and a half from her hometown, Judge scored both goals with family, friends and former teammates in the stands.
“It was great to be able to show up [and score] in front of people that came out to watch,” Judge said. “[Redshirt-sophomore back Kaci Coveleski] went to same high school as I did. Her sister and two other players play for Delaware. Our high school and middle school teams came up to the game, so it was pretty amazing.”
With the lead 3-0, Northeastern spent most of the second half locked in on defense. While the offense racked up a season-high 21 shots, the defense endured only two shots on net the entire game, both in the second half.
The win moved Northeastern senior goalie Lizzie Priest into sole possession of third place on the program’s all-time wins list with 42. Priest now sits one behind Danielle Butsch (1993-97) for second all time, and seven behind Brenda Mitchell (1989-92) for first in program history.
“It’s just amazing that all my hard work is really showing,” Priest said. “It’s just been something I’ve been working towards and it’s awesome to have it come my senior year with all these girls.”
Should the Huskies win out the remainder of the regular season with Priest in net, she would trail Mitchell by one game.
The Huskies fell to No. 10 in the Penn Motto/National Field Hockey Coaches Poll this week. Old Dominion University and Northwestern University, the two teams that jumped the Huskies, put together dominating wins over the likes of No. 18 Drexel University, Towson University, University of Michigan and Kent State University, likely giving them the edge in this week’s poll.
In addition to the team’s fifth consecutive week in the top-10, Crystal Poland notched her sixth-career CAA Player of the Week honors after finishing with three goals and one assist in her two games against Harvard and Delaware.
Poland currently sits as one of the nation’s best field hockey players; she’s second in the nation with 1.58 goals per game, her 3.50 points per game is good for third and she is just two goals behind first place with 19.
The Huskies return to the pitch this weekend to face another group of top-25 opponents. They head to Chestnut Hill on Friday to face No. 24 Boston College before heading to Durham, N.H., Sunday for a game against No. 25 University of Maine.
“We respect the Boston teams,” Murtagh said. “And we also know that if we do well in Boston we’re probably doing okay. Typically, one of the four [teams in Boston] is nationally ranked. This year, Boston University and Boston College are in the top 25, so if we’re doing well in Boston, we’re probably doing well overall.”
