The field hockey team, currently ranked 12th in the country, easily handled their week’s light workload, dispatching the Brown Bears at Warner Roof in Providence by a 6-1 margin in their only game.
The game provided three Huskies with the chance to continue jockeying for a position at the top of the nation’s scoring charts.
For the third consecutive week, junior Mari Creatini has been the top statistical player in the country, taking the number one spot in points (49), points per game (3.77) and goals (20). Despite only playing one game last week, Creatini still maintained a comfortable lead in all categories, with 16 more points than her nearest challenger, Jennifer Stone of Lafayette. Creatini averaged one full point per game more than Maryland’s Paula Infante, who is in second.
Senior captain Leigh Shea ended the week locked in a four-way tie for seventh in assists with 10. Creatini and Sara Webber, another Husky captain, were tied for the 11th spot with nine.
Not coincidently, that trio makes up NU’s penalty corner unit that has been deadly accurate throughout the year.
The Huskies pounced on Brown early with two goals in the opening minutes.
Liane Dixon finished a breakaway opportunity in the game’s opening minute for her seventh of the season. The junior would notch her eighth of the season at 21:03 in the first half, for her third multiple goal game of the season.
Creatini scored the eventual game-winner five minutes after Dixon’s breakaway on a broken corner play.
The Northeastern penalty corner unit put the game out of reach in the second half when Melissa Rowell and Webber converted strikes within five minutes of each other and Jay Quinn tallied the sixth and final goal of the game 15 minutes later at 65:03.
After the game, coach Cheryl Murtagh praised the work of her defense, which held Brown to only two shots and zero penalty corners in the game.
“This was one of the best defensive games we’ve played,” said Murtagh. “Brown is a good attacking team, (our pressure) gets them out of their rhythm.”
Murtagh highlighted the play of Shea, her captain who controls the middle of the field, and Quinn, a converted forward who has started to come into her own as a midfielder.
“Everyone is communicating on defense now,” said Quinn, who played on her high school hockey team at perennial power Watertown High School. “Meghan [Troxel] is communicating with me from behind and the forwards are helping back.”
Tuesday, the Huskies will host cross-town rival and 16th-ranked Harvard at Sweeney Field and travel to the Green Mountain State Saturday to take on the University of Vermont. Neither game will affect NU’s standing in the conference, which stands at 1-0, tied with Maine and New Hampshire for first place.
Next Wednesday, the Huskies host No. 13, UConn, with an eye towards avenging last year’s 2-1 overtime loss at Connecticut.
Both games should give the surging Husky defense a chance to match up against some of the nation’s premier offensive attacks.
