Northeastern field hockey (7-6, 2-1 CAA) ended the weekend with two victories against the Hofstra University Pride (7-8, 0-3 CAA) Oct. 17 and the Quinnipiac University Bobcats (9-6, 2-3 Big East) Oct. 19. The team’s win over Hofstra moved them up to third in conference standings.
Sophomore defender Camille Armaganian’s goal two games prior against the University at Albany tied her and senior forward Emilia Adragna as the team’s leading scorers. Adragna’s goal in the Hofstra game briefly pulled her ahead, but Armaganian’s two goals in the Quinnipiac game gave her five goals, one more than Adragna.
On Friday, the Huskies beat Hofstra 2-1 with goals from Adragna and freshman midfielder Jessica Garden. It was Garden’s third goal of the season. Graduate student goalkeeper Arabella Loveridge blocked three of four shots on goal.
Graduate student forward and midfielder Lilly Smith and senior forward Emmy Stubbs made unsuccessful shots early in the game before the first point went to the Pride, who scored on a penalty shot 12 minutes in. The scoreboard stayed static for the rest of the quarter, and Northeastern was helped by a Hofstra player earning a green card and leaving the field for the final minute.
Hofstra received another green card almost four minutes into the second quarter, again bringing them down to nine field players. Adragna used that advantage to score during a penalty corner inserted by senior defender and midfielder Ashley Pappas and assisted by freshman defender Lucy Walton.
Two more penalty corners also inserted by Pappas and shot by Armaganian were blocked, leaving the score tied at the end of the first half.
Forty-three seconds into the third, Garden made an unassisted goal that put Northeastern on top 2-1.
The rest of the game was a battle to stop Hofstra from scoring, and it only managed to shoot once in the third quarter. In the fourth, Hofstra had one shot to Northeastern’s five, but none were successful for either team.
Captain junior midfielder and forward Alex Mega’s two shots and freshman forward Addison Polakoff’s one shot were all blocked, and Adragna and Walton’s shots went wide.
With one second left in the game, Hofstra made a penalty corner shot that Loveridge saved to stop the game from going into overtime, freezing the scoreboard at 2-1.
In Sunday’s game against Quinnipiac, Mega scored one goal and Armaganian scored two. Though this game had a close final score of 3-2, the Bobcats have never beaten Northeastern since the teams began playing each other in 2001.
Freshman goalkeeper Ibby Weldon played all 60 minutes after only playing 15 minutes this season so far. Since primary goalkeeper Loveridge is slated to graduate at the end of the year, head coach Pam Spuehler said at a previous game that she wanted to give Weldon enough playing time to prepare for next season. Weldon blocked four of the six balls shot at her.
Stubbs and senior midfielder and defender Anna-Kate Domingue kicked off the game with shots on goal that Quinnipiac’s senior goalkeeper Cristina Torres blocked. Bobcat sophomore midfielder Francisca Eschoyez then blocked a shot by graduate student midfielder and forward Laine Ambrose.
Armaganian put the Huskies on the scoreboard with a penalty corner shot assisted by Mega and Garden.
But the Huskies did not stay in the lead for long. Quinnipiac scored its first goal with a third penalty shot 13 minutes into the game.
Northeastern pulled ahead again in the second quarter. Armaganian made a shot that was blocked, and Garden followed up with one too high. But Armaganian scored again with a penalty corner, inserted by Pappas and again assisted by Alex Mega. It was Mega’s fifth assist of the season, the most by any Northeastern player this year.
Smith made a wide shot with seven minutes left, and the goal did not see any more action until the end of the half.
In the scoreless third period, the Huskies made three shots and the Bobcats made one, which was saved by Weldon.
Halfway through the final quarter, Pappas inserted to Walton on a penalty corner, who passed to Mega for the Huskies’ third and final goal.
Later, the Bobcats made two back-to-back shots, one of which Pappas blocked and the second of which hit the post. But a third shot 40 seconds later hit the back of the net, bringing the score to 3-2.
In a last-ditch effort to close the gap, the Bobcats made three shots in the final minute. Weldon blocked the first two and Domingue blocked the third, and the buzzer sounded with the Huskies in the lead.
The Huskies will face the Drexel University Dragons (9-6, 2-1 CAA) Oct. 24 at 3 p.m. at home. Both Northeastern and Drexel are 2-1 in conference games, though Drexel’s better overall record places it ahead of Northeastern in CAA standings.
