WPI 2, Babson 1
Box
Score
Worcester, MA --- The WPI field hockey team earned a home game
in the upcoming NEWMAC Tournament following an exciting 2-1 victory
over visiting Babson in the regular season finale for both teams on
Wednesday evening.
With the result, both WPI (10-7) and Babson (11-8) join Mount
Holyoke in a three-way tie for fourth place at 4-4. As a
result of wins over the other two teams, WPI earns the fourth seed
and the coveted home game in Saturday's quarterfinals. Their
opponent will be Babson, who earned the fifth seeded by virtue of
its victory over Mount Holyoke. An official game time will be
announced on Thursday. (Added Thursday morning -
Saturday's quarterfinal game will start at noon).
WPI dented the scoring column first when Danielle
Antonellis (Duxbury, MA) successfully converted a penalty
stroke at the 13:22 mark for her second marker of the
season.
That would be the only tally of the game until a wild final six
minutes, that began with WPI defending three penalty corners in a
90 second span. Shortly thereafter, the Engineers countered
and converted their only shot of the second half when
Nicole Maglione (Charlton, MA) buried a feed from
Meghan Linskey (Bridgewater, MA) with 3:06
remaining to expand the lead to 2-0. The goal was Maglione's
team-leading 10th of the season and 30th of her standout
career.
Babson sliced the advantage to 2-1 with 12 seconds remaining
when sophomore Colleen Kelly (Milton, MA) knocked
home a pass from classmate Erin Campbell
(Arlington, MA) for her eight goal of the year. The Beavers
promptly stole the ball and advanced quickly downfield but were
just not able to get a shot off in the waning seconds.
Betsy Ray (Simsbury, CT) was strong in net for
the Engineers, turning away six shots on the night. Senior
Maggie Elbag (Rutland, MA) aided the WPI defensive
effort with a defensive save midway through the first half.
Babson netminder Jessica Pashos (Winchester, MA)
notched four saves on the night for the Beavers.
For the game, Babson enjoyed a 12-6 edge in shots and 14-3
advantage in penalty corners, including all 12 attempts in the
second half.
