For Immediate Release
October 18, 2008
Wellesley Sports Information
Courtesy Springfield Sports Information
Wellesley Field Hockey Falls to Springfield
Box Score
Springfield, Mass. – October 18, 2008 – Led by senior All-American Jane Kelleher’s (Chatham, Mass.) two first-half goals, the Springfield College field hockey team downed Wellesley, 4-1, in a key New England Women’s and Men’s Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) contest on Saturday morning.
The game was played with an eye towards raising awareness for breast cancer as the Pride took part in the Play 4 the Cure movement in conjunction with the Susan G. Komen Foundation.
With the victory, the Pride move into sole possession of first place in the conference with a 10-4 record, including a 6-0 mark in league play. Wellesley drops to 8-4, 4-1.
The Pride tallied the first goal of the at the 20:54 mark when Meagan Dobson (Longmeadow, Mass.) took a feed from Meg Bradley (Cumberland, R.I.) and blasted a shot into the back of the cage. Kelleher gave Springfield a two-goal advantage three minutes later when she netted her first tally of the game off a penalty corner.
With 29 seconds remaining in the first half, Kelleher netted a simply spectacular goal. While charging towards the cage, Kelleher and Emily Hewitt collided just in front of the goal, sending both players to the ground. However, the All-American located the ball and fired it into the cage while on the ground to push the Pride’s lead to three.
The Blue battled back with pressure in the second half and finally tallied a goal with just over 18 minutes left in the game. In a flurry of action around the cage, Callie Lekas batted a ball from the air past Springfield keeper Alison McCarthy (North Andover, Mass.) to make it a 3-1 game.
Springfield’s Alexa Carlson (New Milford, Conn.) rounded out the scoring in the game as sh e took a pass from Becca Gamble (Granby, Conn.) and slipped her shot past Hewitt with 3:49 on the clock.
Hewitt made several terrific saves in the game and finished with 16 saves, while McCarthy notched six saves in the victory. Springfield held a 33-9 advantage in shots and a 12-4 edge in penalty corners.
The Pride will now wrap up the regular season with four-straight games on the road, beginning on Wednesday when it travels to take on Trinity in a non-conference matchup. Game time is set for 6:00 pm