By Peter Conroy

Northeastern Field Hockey coach Cheryl Murtagh threw her squad into the fire to start the season, stacking her girls’ opening schedule with four games against powerful non-league opponents. At the end of the stretch, the Huskies found themselves ranked 12 in the country with a 2-2 record and boasted the America East co-player of the week, junior Mari Creatini, who recorded her first career hat trick against national power Michigan. “We needed to see where we stood,” said Murtagh of her decision to book a trip down to Virginia to play James Madison (a 2-1 victory) and University of Virginia (a 4-2 loss) before welcoming the University of Michigan and Ohio University to Sweeney Field on Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday, the Huskies looked to avenge last year’s 2-1 defeat at the hands of Michigan at Ann Arbor. The Wolverines, last season’s fourth ranked team in the country, looked to beat the Huskies for the sixth time in as many match-ups while NU hoped to keep alive its 15-game home winning streak. Despite a hat trick from Mari Creatini, the Wolverines came out on top with a 4-3 victory after pouncing early to score the game’s first three goals. After the third goal, Murtagh called a timeout to stem the tide and give her squad a chance to regroup. Coming off the respite, Creatini struck for her first goal, dribbling past Michigan goalie Molly Maloney and finished a tough-angle shot to narrow the score to 3-1. “Mari’s very strong on the ball,” Murtagh said of her junior forward. “It’s tough to take it away from her,” Minutes later, Creatini cut the deficit to one when she deflected a Sara Webber shot over the outstretched Molloy. Seconds after that, a Michigan goal killed the NU rally and put the score at 4-2. Creatini ended up scoring again, assisted by Melissa Rowell, to cut the lead to one. The Huskies had their final gasp when redshirt freshman Natalie Singelais beat the Michigan goalie only to have her shot turned away by forward Adrienne Hortillosa. “I think we are a team that can score some goals,” said Murtagh. “But that (fourth) goal hurts. Against a good team that’s tough to come back from. While much of Boston was watching the Patriots getting smacked around by Buffalo Sunday, NU was administering a beating of their own, to prodigal daughter and Ohio coach Shelly Morris’ (NU class of ’94) Ohio squad. The Bobcats jumped on the board first, scoring less than five minutes into the game, but gave up five unanswered to give the Huskies their first home victory of the year. Junior forward Liane Dixon notched the first and third NU goals of the game, the 29th and 30th of her career, making her Northeastern’s tenth leading scorer of all-time. Senior back Melissa Rowell fired home the eventual winner off a penalty corner put in play by Creatini and stopped by fellow back Leigh Shea. The goal was the third of Rowell’s season and career. Singelais tipped a Jay Quinn shot over the outstretched OU goalie for fourth goal of the game and the second of her career. Sara Webber capped off the scoring by beating a pair of defenders off a corner and burying a 15-footer to put the score at 5-1. The Huskies will resume non-league action this week with Quinnipiac coming to town on Friday and again at Holy Cross on Sunday.