By James Duffy, news correspondent
The season came to a close for the Northeastern University (NU) field hockey team over the weekend. After beating Towson University 6-3 on Friday night, the Huskies lost a heartbreaker to the No. 14 University of Delaware in a game that could have sent them to the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) Tournament.
The team ended the season with a 5-13 overall and 2-4 record within the conference.
In Friday night’s victory, the team scored a season-high six goals to keep its hopes of tournament play alive.
NU put a total of 21 shots on goal. Forwards senior Vanessa Pryor and freshmen Mia Martin and June Curry-Lindahl scored two goals each in the contest.
The offense was firing on all cylinders as forwards freshman Abbey MacLellan and sophomore Kristin Abreu added assists in the game.
Junior goalie Becky Garner made three saves against Towson and broke her personal single-season save high. The three stops brought her to 113 on the season, trumping the 111 saves she made her freshman year.
On Sunday afternoon, needing a win for a chance to play in the CAA tournament, the team lost a 4-3 game to the Delaware Fightin’ Blue Hens.
The three seniors on the team, Pryor, midfielder Zoe Kale and back Kate Carlson, were honored in a ceremony before their last home game in red and black.
Carlson scored the game’s first goal four minutes into the contest and struck again later in the first half to put the Huskies in the lead.
“She’s so committed to our program,” Head Coach Cheryl Murtagh said of Carlson in an interview with GoNU.com. “To see her come out and score two goals like that was great. She works hard.”
MacLellan scored the third Northeastern goal, which tied the game after Delaware scored two unanswered goals to start the second half. However, it was not enough as the Hens scored a late goal that decided the match.
Garner stopped another eight shots in the contest, bringing her season total to 121.
“I liked how they came out and responded to the challenge,” Murtagh said. “They made it a game today and made it tough for Delaware to get in [to the CAA tournament].”
Carlson reflected on the season as a whole and the difficulty of the teams they faced.
“Even though most of our games didn’t turn out in our favor, I think it’s important that we played ranked opponents who pushed us to improve,” Carlson said in an email to The News.
She hopes that the team will come back strong next season in the wake of her departure.
“I’m confident that the transition into next year will go smoothly with the younger players since there are so many girls coming back for next season,” Carlson said.
Photo courtesy Jim Pierce, Northeastern Athletics
