Box Score Springfield, Mass. – September 26, 2014 – Despite a goal and an assist from junior midfielder Olivia Cabral (Sayville, N.Y.), the Springfield College field hockey team fell to Babson College in its second New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) game of the season on Friday afternoon at Stagg Field.
With the loss, the Pride fall to 3-4 overall and 0-2 in the NEWMAC, while Babson improves to 6-2 on the year and 2-0 in conference play.
Sophomore goalkeeper Juliana Barrasso (Bayport, N.Y.) finished the contest with a game-high four stops, including a pair of acrobatic saves on point-blank shots from the Beavers. Her counterpart, Kayla Costa (Watertown, Mass.) posted 3 saves and claimed the victory for Babson. Springfield held a 13-12 shot advantage in the contest, as well as a 13-9 advantage in penalty corners.
Just 2:23 into the contest, a goal by Staci Swallow (South Portland, Maine) gave the Beavers a 1-0 advantage when she capitalized off of a penalty corner sent in by Caroline Malone (Walpole, Mass.). The sophomore collected a pass from Melanie Jordan (Westford, Mass.) and ripped a shot past Barasso to give Babson an early lead.
At the 21:57 mark of the first half, Cabral gained possession of the ball in the Babson defensive zone and struck a shot at the net that was blocked by the Babson defense, only to find it way to the stick of Katie Gill (Wallingford, Conn.), who collected the rebound and found the back of the net to even the score at one goal apiece.
Just 6:18 later,
Maggie Kennedy (Clay, N.Y.) slid a pass over to Cabral in the middle of the field who fired a shot into the top right corner of the net to give the Pride a 2-1 lead and a grasp on the game's momentum heading into half time.
After the break, at the 23:27 mark of the second half, Megan Jones (Essex, Mass.) picked up a loose ball at the top of the arch and blasted a shot that found it's way through a scrum of Springfield defenders and into the back of the net to even the game at two goals apiece.
Just 53 seconds later, Jones found the back of the net again after the sophomore capitalized on a loose ball that popped out of a scrum in front of the Springfield net and onto her stick, giving the Beavers a 3-2 lead.
At the 10:57 mark, Barrasso made a diving stop on a shot from Babson, but the rebound bounced to Jordan, who put a shot on the cage, which was redirected by Malone and into the back of the net to push the Beavers' lead to two.
With 2:30 remaining, Linnea Quist (New Preston, Conn.) gained control of the ball at the top of the arch after Libby Hart (Chatham, Mass.) sent in a penalty corner, and put a shot on cage that deflected into the air off of a Babson defender and into the net to cut the Pride's deficit to one in the late stages of the game.
Up next, Springfield will travel to Williams College to take on the Ephs on Wednesday, October 1 for a non-conference battle. The game is set to begin at 7 p.m.
