By Bailey Knecht, sports editor
The Northeastern University (NU) field hockey team (2-4) split a pair of road games this weekend, beating Dartmouth College on Friday but falling to the University of New Hampshire (UNH) on Sunday.
The Huskies narrowly snuck by Dartmouth with a score of 2-1, thanks to goals from sophomore forward Kellie Stigas and junior midfielder Natalie Stewart.
Stigas scored off an assist from Stewart in the first half to put the Huskies on the scoreboard at 30:36.
“I didn’t have a great angle, so I flung it to Kellie and she was in perfect position,” Stewart said.
Stewart continued her strong play in the second half. She scored the eventual game-winning goal, her second goal of the season.
“I have to give a lot of credit to my teammates,” she said. “Our defense has been rock-solid getting it up the field.”
Dartmouth scored as time ran out, but it wasn’t enough as the Big Green fell to NU by one.
“Dartmouth is a tough team to play, they’re pretty aggressive,” Head Coach Cheryl Murtagh said. “I thought our defense played well and settled them down on offense. We had a good counterattack.”
Two days later, the Huskies lost to UNH 2-1, despite shutting out the Wildcats for the first 50 minutes. UNH outshot NU 13-3 in the matchup.
“I don’t think we played as well, in general, as a team,” Murtagh said. “I was a little disappointed. We’ve been playing consistently, but we played below our standard.”
Despite posting a 1-1 record this weekend, junior goalkeeper Becky Garner’s save percentage improved to a solid .722.
“Becky played very well,” Murtagh said, referring to Garner’s five saves against UNH. “She stayed composed and poised, and we need to help her out more. Our defense broke down, and we also didn’t sustain enough attack.”
Stewart spoke to a number of areas in which her team can improve before its next competition against Harvard University.
“UNH got us back on our heels a bit, so we need to work on good distribution, not throwing the ball away and having good, positive energy,” she said.
Up next for the team is a home game against Harvard at 5 p.m. on Friday and a match at Boston College at 3 p.m. on Sunday.
“Harvard’s always a good opponent,” Murtagh said. “I think we need to get back to our standard of play and have more positives on the attacking side and get more pressure on defense.”
Photo courtesy Jim Peirce, Northeastern Athletics.
