Springfield, Mass. – October 9, 2010 – The Springfield College field hockey team opened up a 3-0 lead after the first 35 minutes of play and never looked back as it picked up a 3-1 win over visiting WPI in a key New England Women’s and Men’s Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) contest on Saturday afternoon.
The Pride has now won four straight games to improve to 6-5 overall, 3-1 in league play. WPI falls to 4-8, 0-4.
Springfield held a 26-10 advantage in shots for the game, including an 11-5 edge in the opening half.
Meghan McHugh (Greenfield, Mass.) started the scoring midway through the first half as she found the back of the cage off a feed from teammate Alexa Carlson. The play began on a strong drive to the net by freshman Kelly Gallo (Westfield, Mass.). Kaila Dee (New Hartford, Conn.) would go on to score what would prove to be the game-winning strike just 47 seconds later on an assist from Meagan Dobson (Longmeadow, Mass.). Dobson set up Dee very nicely on the left front doorstep of the goal.
Springfield tacked on its final goal of the contest with 4:09 left in the first half as MaryKate Murray (Killingworth, Conn.) tallied her first collegiate goal. Murray’s strike was assisted by Gallo.
WPI scored their lone goal of the contest with 6:35 remaining as junior Emily Pearce (Avon, Conn.) converted her fast-break opportunity as she slipped her shot past junior goalkeeper Alison McCarthy (North Andover, Mass.). It was a pretty goal by Pearce.
Springfield looks to keep its strong play when it travels for a non-conference game at Plymouth State on Wednesday at 4:00 pm.
