BOX
SCORE
BABSON PARK, Mass. - Junior Meghan Linskey (Bridgewater, Mass.)
scored the game-winning goal with 3:56 left in regulation to lift
the visiting WPI field hockey team to a stunning 3-2 victory over
host Babson College in the final game of the New England Women's
and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) regular season at Babson's
MacDowell Field on Tuesday night. With the win, the Engineers
improve to 11-5 overall and 5-3 in conference play, while the
Beavers enter the postseason at 11-7 overall and 4-4 in the
NEWMAC.
Babson dominated the majority of the contest, recording a 34-8 shot
advantage overall and 22-6 in shots on goal. The Beavers also had
21 penalty corners to WPI's three, but the Engineers came away with
the victory thanks to some timely offense and the magnificent play
of senior goalkeepers Allie Griffin (Billerica, Mass.) and
Elizabeth Ray (Simsbury, Conn.). Griffin started and made seven
saves in the first half, while ray entered the game to start the
second half and stopped 11 shots. WPI also received two critical
defensive saves early in the second half from senior back Kelly
Johnson (Buxton, Maine).
WPI took a 1-0 lead early on, as sophomore Celena Dopart
(Washington, D.C.) put back a rebound of Linskey's shot off the
left post for her third goal of the season at 5:29. That lead would
last only seven minutes, however, as Babson junior Sarah
Fredlund (New Preston, Conn.) scored her 20th
goal of the year off her own rebound at 12:37.
The Engineers went back in front in the 26th minute of play, as
Johnson took a penalty corner insertion from first-year Maggie
Wigley (Bridgewater, Mass.) at the top of the circle and hit a
rocket that glanced off a defender's stick and inside the right
post at 25:35. It was the senior back's team-leading 10th goal of
the season and it gave the Engineers a 2-1 lead that they would
carry into the break.
Johnson made two big defensive saves on shots by Babson junior
Colleen Kelly (Milton, Mass.) just 20 seconds
apart in the opening seven minutes of the second stanza, but the
Beavers' offensive onslaught eventually broke through when Fredlund
swept a shot past Ray from the left side off a Kelly pass from the
top of the circle on one of Babson's 12 second-half penalty
corners. However, that would prove to be the Beavers' final goal of
the contest, as Ray made eight of her 11 saves in the final 13
minutes of regulation to keep the hosts off the board.
Linskey finally secured the game-winner for WPI with just under
four minutes remaining, as she took a pass from Johnson on the
right side and knocked a shot past sprawling sophomore goalie
Jess Pashos (Winchester, Mass.) at 66:04. Babson
would manage one more penalty corner and two more shots on net in
the final three minutes, but Ray turned away both bids to preserve
the 3-2 win.
Pashos played just under 65 minutes in goal for the Beavers
making three saves on the night.
Both teams will now head into postseason play, as the NEWMAC
Tournament Quarterfinals will take place at locations and times to
be determined on Saturday, October 31. Wellesley College locked up
the top seed in the tourney with a victory over Wheaton and a loss
by Clark University on Tuesday. The remaining seven seeds and the
listing of all first-round matchups will be announced by the league
office by Wednesday morning.
