By Andy MacDougall, News Staff
Following the conclusion of its six-game slide with a win over La Salle University, the Northeastern field hockey team earned its first marquee win of the season Friday afternoon.
Junior Caroline Judge netted the game’s lone goal, and goaltender Becky Garner tallied her first collegiate shutout as the Huskies upended the 19th-ranked Dragons of Drexel University, 1-0, before falling to the University of Maine Black Bears on the road Sunday afternoon, 3-2.
“[Drexel] was a huge win for us,” Judge said. “We have some history with Drexel just with them knocking us out of the CAA tournament the last few years. It was a great opportunity against a CAA opponent for us to make our mark in the CAA.”
They held the Dragons off the shot chart for the first 22 minutes of play.
Northeastern broke through in the 20th minute. Freshman forward Emmy Zweserijn took a direct shot off a penalty corner that was saved by Drexel’s Jantien Gunter, but Judge was nearby to stuff home the rebound for the 1-0 lead.
That was enough for Garner, as the freshman from Somerset, England, stood tall in the cage the rest of the way. Drexel tallied three consecutive penalty corners before the end of the first half, but Garner got a pad on all three bids.
The win Friday marked Northeastern’s first victory over Drexel since 2011.
“Just because they’re ranked doesn’t mean they’re unbeatable,” Garner said. “We obviously showed that, I think, and Cheryl and the coaches have helped us realize we do have that potential, we just need to work together and everybody needs to work together to achieve the goal of beating a ranked team, especially in conference.”
Two days later, the Huskies shipped up to Orono, Me. for a date with the University of Maine.
Zweserijn got Northeastern started with a score at 3:59 as she slipped a ball past Maine’s Natasha Ford.
Less than a minute later, Maine notched the equalizer. Cassidy Svetek had a loose ball fall on her stick in the center of the circle and smacked it past Garner to tie it up.
The game would remain knotted at one for nearly 40 minutes before Maine took its first lead of the afternoon. Fran Rowely received the penalty corner and rifled a shot through traffic. The ball nicked the stick of Sydney Veljacic and snuck past Garner for the 2-1 Black Bear lead.
The Huskies responded with less than 12 minutes remaining in the contest. Lindsay Bennett deflected the ball inside the left post off a feed from Vanessa Pryor. Bennett’s sixth goal of the season would tie the game at two.
But the comeback fell short with 55 seconds left in as Maine’s Annabelle Hamilton netted the winner.
With the shutout of Drexel, Garner earned CAA Rookie of the Week honors for the week of Oct. 14. Garner is the second-consecutive Husky to take home the weekly honor, following in the footsteps of fellow freshman Natalie Stewart. Overall, it is the second conference accolade awarded to Northeastern this season.
“It’s a great honor and I’m very flattered by it,” Garner said. “I just play. I don’t go out to achieve titles and credits. I just try to play my best and if the titles and credits come, that’s a bonus.”
Northeastern returns to Solomon Field for a matchup with Boston University Sunday afternoon at 2 p.m.
