Springfield 4, WPI 1

Box Score

Springfield , MA --- Powered by Jane Kelleher's two-goal performance, the Springfield College field hockey team downed WPI by a score of 4-1 today in a New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) post-season tournament semifinal matchup at SC's Brock-Affleck Field.

With the win, the #1-seeded Pride advances to the NEWMAC Championship game where it will meet #3-seeded Wellesley College, a 2-1 winner over Wheaton later today. The championship game is scheduled for 1:00 p.m. tomorrow (on Sunday, November 9) at Springfield College.

Almost 20 minutes into the first half, the Pride's Jill Urtz (Verona, N.Y.) stole the ball in the midfield and pushed a long pass down the left hand side to an on-running Alexa Carlson (New Milford, Conn.). The freshman smoothly sent a hard ball through the middle only to find Kelleher waiting. The Chatham, Mass. native shot a one-timer into the back of the net.

Springfield did not ease up on the pressure, yet the Engineers' Betsy Ray (Simsbury, Conn.) made several nice stops in the cage, including an initial stop on Emily Murray (Boonton, N.J.) with just less than nine minutes to play in the first half. Murray, however, came out the winner, as the rebound bounced directly to her. The junior made the most of the play, blasting a shot past Ray to put the Pride into a 2-0 lead, which it would carry into halftime.

Kelleher wasted no time in picking up where she left off after the break. Only 47 seconds into the second half, the senior once again converted a pass from Carlson, to give Springfield a 3-0 edge.

Meg Bradley (Cumberland, R.I.) tallied the fourth goal for the Pride, as the sophomore redirected a loose ball in front of the goal mouth, which managed to squeeze past the outstretched arms of a WPI defender. It was 4-0 with 26:45 remaining.

But the Engineers would not go down without a fight as Sarah Tracy (Oakland, Maine) smoothly maneuvered her way through several Springfield defenders, faked with a backhand shot, then finished with a forehand directly into the cage. That goal was scored with 8:37 left.

Springfield outshot the Engineers 18 to 5, with 10 of the Pride's shots coming in the second half. Springfield also held the edge in penalty corners, 12-6.

Ray was credited with eight saves in goal for the Engineers. Alison McCarthy (North Andover, Mass.) of Springfield was credited with two saves.

The Pride will be seeking its fifth straight NEWMAC tournament championship on Sunday when it meets the Blue of Wellesley. Both programs will be vying for their seventh overall title.

Release Courtesy Springfield Sports Information