CAMBRIDGE, Mass.— Senior Audrey Oh (Longmeadow, Mass.) scored the only goal of the game with six minutes remaining in the third quarter and MIT withstood a big fourth quarter surge to defeat No. 9 Babson College, 1-0, in a New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) field hockey clash Tuesday evening at Jack Barry Field.
With the loss, the Beavers had their 80-game NEWMAC regular-season winning streak dating back to 2015 snapped. The Green and White fall to 7-4 overall and 3-1 in conference play this season while MIT remains undefeated in league play at 4-0 and moves to 6-5 overall.
The loss is also the first in 57 games against any NEWMAC opponent, including the conference tournament, since a 3-2 overtime loss to MIT in the 2019 NEWMAC title game.
Sophomore Alexia Ninios (London, England) made four saves in goal to record the shutout for MIT, all four stops coming in the fourth quarter. Sophomore
Madison Tibbals (Gorham, Maine) made two saves for the Beavers, both in the third quarter.
The game was dominated by defense in the first two and a half quarters, as neither team was able to muster a shot on goal in the first half. Babson managed three shots in the opening frame but all three were blocked, and that was it for either team in the opening 30 minutes despite four penalty corners for the Green and White and three for the hosts.
The Engineers started to gain some momentum in the third quarter and finally broke through on a penalty corner in the 39th minute. After the insertion, Tibbals made her first save on a shot from the top left side by senior Janie Thomas (Houston, Texas), but Oh collected the loose ball and buried it past Tibbals and inside the right post with 6:11 remaining in the third quarter.
Thomas had another shot go wide for MIT and Tibbals denied a shot by Oh in the 44th minute but the hosts took a one-goal lead into the final frame.
Babson came alive and put pressure on the Engineer goal but Ninios was up to the challenge, stopping a flurry of shots by juniors
Taylor Shoflick (Greenwood Village, Colo.) and
Penny Baroni (Dennis, Mass.) before a beautiful kick save on senior
Grace Mullaney (Boxford, Mass.) after a penalty corner, all in a three-minute span.
After pulling Tibbals for an extra attacker with three minutes remaining, Babson had a penalty corner with 2:30 to go, but Ninios made a nice save on a powerful shot by Baroni. The Green and White had one last corner with 15 seconds remaining but couldn't get off a shot and the clock ran out on the Beavers.
The Green and White finished with a 10-5 advantage in shots and a 4-3 edge in shots on goal along with a 7-5 margin in penalty corners.
Both teams return to action with conference games on Saturday as Babson hosts Smith at 12:30 p.m. at MacDowell Field and MIT travels to Salve Regina for a noon match-up in Newport, R.I.
GAME NOTES
• The Beavers have a 38-19 advantage over MIT in the all-time series that dates back to 1984.
• Babson had won 16 of the last 19 against the Engineers, including nine in a row since MIT defeated the Beavers, 3-2 in overtime, in the 2019 NEWMAC Championship final at MacDowell Field.
• The Green and White have outscored their opponents 28-1 in their seven victories this year with six shutouts, but have been outscored 11-1 in their four losses and blanked three times.
• The loss for Babson was also the first in the month of October since falling to Montclair State on October 28, 2017, a string of 66 games.
