By Andy MacDougall, News Correspondent
For eight Northeastern field hockey seniors, Sunday afternoon came too fast.
Senior Day was meant for other players, older girls who had been around forever. Senior Day had always been a far-off thought, but here it was, and here they were.
But amidst all the emotion and the celebration, tears and hugs, the Huskies never missed a beat.
Northeastern finished off their 2012 regular season with a result fit for one of the best teams in the nation. Behind a career-high four goals from senior forward Crystal Poland, the Huskies redeemed a 1-0 loss to Drexel University on Friday with a dominating, 6-0 win over Towson University on Senior Day at Jordan Field in Cambridge.
“I wanted to have as much fun as I could, playing at home with all friends, that was the No. 1 priority,” Poland said. “The other priority was going out with a bang.”
Even as the best player to ever suit up for Northeastern, the record-setting Poland found another way to out-do herself.
Not only was her four-goal performance a career-best – a personal accomplishment she achieved with her family in attendance from Crofton, British Columbia – it cemented Poland’s place in the conversation of best player in the nation. Her 3.39 points per game puts her at fourth in the country and her 1.56 goals per game placed her in a tie with Princeton’s Kathleen Sharkey for best in the nation.
In her final regular season game, Poland wasted no time in getting on the scorer’s sheet. Just 21 seconds into the match, Poland took a penalty stroke and buried it top-shelf for a 1-0 Northeastern lead.
Nearly 28 minutes passed before Northeastern would find the back of the net again. This time, senior forward Hannah Hoelscher took a long pass from freshman forward Deirdre Duke and put it inside the post for her second-career goal as friends and family cheered on.
The Huskies took their 2-0 lead into halftime, and just a minute after the break, Poland took the ball into the circle and buried a shot dead center for a 3-0 Northeastern lead. Even with the lead, Northeastern kept relentless pressure on Towson’s back line.
At 47:18, Poland shot from just inside the circle. After a save by Towson goalie Tashani Dickson, Poland found her own rebound and tacked on her third goal of the game, pushing Northeastern’s lead to 4-0.
Poland would finish her day with her trademark goal: a penalty corner she flicked past Dickson for the 5-0 lead. The goal was Poland’s 28th of the season, breaking her career-high of 27 set last season, and putting her one goal behind former Husky Mari Creatini (2001-2004) for most goals in program history. Hoelscher and senior defender Allison Conti tallied the assist.
Duke would added a goal off an assist from senior midfielder Olivia Bass to cap the Northeastern scoring on the afternoon.
The Huskies finished with an astonishing 45-5 shot advantage and 12-0 advantage in penalty corners.
“It was really cool to end my career at home with four goals,” Poland said. “I remember James Madison at their senior day one year, and one of their seniors scored a hat trick on us. I was like. ‘Whoa, this girl is on fire. She’s going out with a bang.’ That was kind of the goal on Sunday.”
The impressive showing on Senior Day came less than 48 hours after the Huskies embarked on a long ride home from Philadelphia. Against CAA-rival and then-No. 23 Drexel, the Huskies played a dominant game, but headed back to Boston with a 1-0 loss.
The Huskies took control early, out-shooting the Dragons 9-1 in the first half and taking seven more penalty corners than Drexel. But at 50:12 in the second, Lauren Hibshman rifled a penalty stroke past Northeastern senior goalie Lizzie Priest for the eventual game-winner.
With the weekend split against the Dragons and the Tigers, the Huskies remained at No. 10 in the National Field Hockey Coaches Poll, marking the eighth consecutive week the Huskies have found themselves in the weekly Top 10.
Though Old Dominion clinched the CAA regular season title with a perfect 7-0 conference record, they are ineligible for postseason play as they gear up to move to Conference USA on July 1, 2013.
As a result, with their win over the Huskies, Drexel captured the No. 1 overall seed in this weekend’s tournament via a tiebreaker with Northeastern, and will play host to the tournament starting tomorrow.
As the No. 2 seed in the tournament, the Huskies have a bye that will carry them to the conference semifinals in Philadelphia on Saturday. There, they will face the winner of James Madison and Hofstra, which will be played Friday afternoon.
Head coach Cheryl Murtagh and the Husky captains are quick to keep their squad from looking past any opponent, but after their loss to Drexel, the Huskies feel they have some unfinished business.
“I think it would have been great to host, it would have brought out a lot more fans for us, but losing to Drexel left kind of a bitter taste in our mouths towards them,” Poland said. “It’s got us fired up. If we make it to the championship game and they do as well, then it’s going to be a really, really good game. I think everyone [for Northeastern] is going to show up to play, play their hearts out, and take it to them.”
