By Andy MacDougall, News Staff
Freshman midfielder Natalie Stewart netted two goals – including the first of her collegiate career – and coach Cheryl Murtagh notched her 350th win with the Huskies as the Northeastern field hockey team split a pair of decisions over the weekend, taking a 5-0 victory over Dartmouth College before falling 3-1 to the University of New Hampshire.
The weekend began with a home contest against the Big Green of Dartmouth Friday afternoon at Solomon Field. Senior co-captain and midfielder Lindsay Bennett opened Northeastern’s onslaught scoring just 45 seconds into the match as she buried her own rebound to give the Huskies a quick 1-0 lead.
The Big Green would match the Huskies’ intensity over the next 20 minutes of play, as Dartmouth held a slight advantage in shots (5-4) and penalty corners (4-3) in their bid to tie the game.
Freshman forward Emmy Zweserijn broke the game open with 6:09 remaining in the first as she dribbled through the defense and sent a low shot past netminder Ellen Meyer. The goal was Zweserijn’s third of the season and gave the Huskies a 2-0 lead. Vanessa Pryor would tack on her second of the season off Zweserijn’s rebound just over two minutes later for a 3-0 Husky lead.
Stewart put the game out of reach three minutes into the second half with her first collegiate goal – a shot into the right corner of the net following a steal at midfield.
Junior co-captain and midfielder Caroline Judge added a tally at 50:39 to give the Huskies the 5-0 final score.
“It was pretty exciting, actually,” said Stewart, whose mother was visiting from Vancouver, British Columbia to see her first career goal. “[The play] opened up, and all of a sudden, it was in the back of the net. It was a pretty special moment.”
Murtagh’s 350 wins over the last 25-plus years are the most in program history. Including her two seasons with the Bentley field hockey program, Murtagh has a career record of 367-207-13 (.637), placing her 16th all-time among all levels of college field hockey.
The five goals against Dartmouth were the most Northeastern has scored in a contest this season, and marked the most goals the team has scored since Senior Day last fall, when the Huskies wrapped up their regular season slate with a 6-0 win over Towson University.
“It’s really great to see,” Stewart said of her team’s offensive capability. “It’s good to see that we don’t have to depend on one player. We have tons of depth and tons of good players coming off the bench.”
Following their win over the Big Green, the Huskies entered Sunday’s match against New Hampshire with a chance for revenge following a double-overtime loss to the Wildcats last fall. The 3-2 loss ended Northeastern’s six-game winning streak to start the 2012 season.
Stewart carried her strong play from Dartmouth into the game against the Wildcats, netting the game’s first goal 8:51 into the first half. After carrying the ball down the middle of the circle, Stewart lifted a shot out of reach of UNH goalie Carlie Tarbell for the 1-0 lead.
The Wildcats were held in check for the game’s first 20 minutes, but a string of three goals in 10 minutes gave New Hampshire a comfortable lead heading into the break. A goal by Melyssa Woods followed by a pair of redirections off the stick of Hannah Richard gave UNH a 3-1 lead with just under four minutes left in the first half.
Northeastern fought to pull the game closer in the second half, but were unable to register a shot on net, and dropped their fourth in a row to the Wildcats. The Huskies last beat New Hampshire 3-2 in 2009.
The Huskies hit the road this weekend for a slate of games in Louisville, Ky. The team will first face Michigan State Friday at 4 p.m. before they take on their host, the University of Louisville Cardinals at 1:30 Sunday afternoon.
