BABSON PARK, Mass.— Senior
Emma Smith (Kenilworth, Ill.) tallied a goal and an assist as No. 17 and second-seeded Babson College blanked third-seeded Wellesley College, 3-0, in a New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) field hockey tournament semifinal Thursday evening at MacDowell Field.
With the victory, the Beavers improved to 14-6 overall with their sixth straight victory and fifth shutout in that span. Wellesley had a five-game winning streak snapped and completed its season at 8-11 overall. The Beavers move on to Saturday's NEWMAC championship game, advancing to the tournament final for the seventh season in a row.
Sophomores
Kayla Rice (Walpole, Mass.) and
Molly DiGiulio (East Amherst, N.Y.) also scored goals in the win, and senior
Grace Mullaney (Boxford, Mass.) and junior
Taylor Shoflick (Greenwood Village, Colo.) collected assists for the Beavers, who took all 36 shots and all 27 penalty corners in the game.
Junior goalie Hannah Simmonds (Austin, Texas) had an outstanding evening in the Wellesley goal, keeping the Blue in the game and finishing with a season-high 14 saves, the second-most in a game in her career.
The Beavers took an early lead on a penalty corner five minutes into the game. Mullaney inserted the corner from the left side, Shoflick stopped it at the top of the arc, and Smith blasted a shot that went past Simmonds and inside the left post for her third goal of the season.
The Green and White dominated the rest of the first half, securing eight more corners and taking 11 more shots and putting four on target, but Simmonds did all she could to keep it a one-goal game. Her best save of the night came midway through the second quarter when she came out of her goal to make a sliding save against senior
Helen DiGiovanni (Harwich, Mass.).
With just a one-goal lead heading into the third quarter, Babson upped the pressure on the Wellesley cage, firing 14 total shots with nine on goal, but Simmonds denied the hosts with eight stops. The Beavers managed to score once in the quarter when Rice chased down a loose ball in the circle and put a shot past Simmonds inside the right post for her second goal of the season.
The Green and White continued the assault on the Wellesley goal in the fourth quarter with 10 shots, two of which were denied by Simmonds. The Beavers got a third goal midway through the frame on a penalty corner as DiGiulio redirected a shot from the edge of the circle by Smith for her third goal of the season.
Babson will take on top-seeded MIT in Saturday's title game at noon at Jack Barry Field in Cambridge. The Engineers broke the Beavers' 80-game conference winning streak with a 1-0 victory last month.
GAME NOTES
• Babson has captured the last 13 games against the Blue and is 25-28-1 all-time against Wellesley in a series that dates back to 1984, although Thursday's win was just the third for Babson in 11 all-time NEWMAC post-season games against the Blue.
• The Beavers have won 11 consecutive NEWMAC Tournament games since 2021, all at MacDowell Field.
• The Green and White, which did not concede a shot to the Blue, has allowed just one or zero shots on goal in 10 of their 20 games this season.
• Babson has outscored its NEWMAC opponents 56-4 in 10 games this season.
