Box Score BABSON PARK, Mass. - First-year
Emily Biggs (Florence, MA/Northampton) scored the lone goal for Smith College but it was not enough as No. 2 Wellesley rallied to defeat No. 3 Smith in overtime of the semifinals of the New England Men's and Women's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) field hockey tournament Saturday afternoon at MacDowell Field.
Smith, which was making its first NEWMAC Tournament semifinal appearance since 2000, drops to 11-9 and will await a potential ECAC bid. With its seventh consecutive victory, Wellesley (16-2) advances to the conference title game for the third straight year. Both meetings between these two teams have gone to overtime this season.
The Pioneers opened the scoring at
14:31 of the first half as Biggs converted a feed from classmate
Beatrice Chaudoin (Millersville, MD/Severna Park) following a penalty corner for a 1-0 lead. Despite a 24-5 edge in shots during regulation, the Blue were unable to breakdown the Smith defense for much of the afternoon.
Pioneers sophomore goalkeeper
Cameo Tietje (Massapequa, N.Y./Massapequa) made four first-half saves and came up with a trio of big stops in the second half. She denied Wellesley junior Nikki Sharkin's shot off a corner in the 37
th minute and twice came off her line to deny Sridhar in the closing minutes of the second half.
The Blue finally drew even with
3:49 left in regulation, converting one of its 14 second-half corners. Following the insert by junior Courtney Peterson, first-year Cecie Negron fed Sharkin, who beat Tietje for her sixth marker of the year.
Smith was unable to convert on the first scoring opportunity of overtime as Wellesley junior goalkeeper Lucy Hurlock made a kick save on a shot by Biggs off a penalty corner. The Blue took advantage, earning three consecutive corners with the final opportunity leading to Sridhar's game winner. Sharkin collected Peterson's insert and fed Sridhar, who spun and found the back of the net for her team-leading 12
thgoal of the year.
Tietje finished with eight saves for the Pioneers, while Hurlock made three stops for Wellesley.
The Blue held a 28-6 advantage in shots and a 22-2 edge in penalty corners.
Wellesley will take on fifth-seeded Mount Holyoke for in the NEWMAC championship game for the third year in a row
on Sunday at
1 p.m.
(Portions of this recap courtesy of Babson Athletics)