This weekend the field hockey team established a comfortable cushion between itself and the No. 2 and No. 3 ranked teams in the Mideast region.
Saturday afternoon the Lady Lions, who are ranked No. 1 regionally, defeated their host, the No. 3 ranked University of Connecticut, by a score of 3-1.
Chris McGinley with an assist from Jen Stewart started the Lady Lion scoring with a penalty corner about 22 minutes into the first half. Only 24 seconds later, Danielle Annibale scored on a pass from Marcy Kolongowski to make the score 2-0. Heather Atkinson capped off the Lady Lion scoring toward the end of the first half.
The only second half scoring was done by UConn’s Sarah Rahn, when she alluded freshman goalkeeper Shelly Meister about 10 minutes into the second half. The Lady Lions outshot the Huskies 20-6. Meister had five saves on the day.
Coach Char Morett said that she was quite pleased with their play thus far within the region. She said she feels that the Lady Lions made an excellent transition from playing on turf to playing on Uconn’s grass.
“I am really pleased,” said Morett, “Each game we’ve improved.”
Yesterday afternoon, when they travelled to Lafayette, the Lady Lions stepped up early to establish their superiority over the No. 2 ranked Leopards.
The Lady Lions, in their 4-0 shutout of the Leopards, more than justified their top ranking in the Mideast region. They came out big and stayed big throughout the game.
Two minutes into the first half, McGinley, with an assist from Stewart, scored on a penalty corner, which was her second goal of the weekend. Kolongowski, who also established herself as a power-player for the Lions, followed up with an unassisted goal. Kolongowski redirected a rebound from the Lafayette goalkeeper’s leg guard and scored to make the score 2-0 in favor of the still undefeated Lady lions.
Kolongowski started off the Lady Lion scoring for the second half. Fifteen minutes into the second half, senior co-captian Amy Stairs made a pass across the mouth of the goal, which Kolongowski then slapped for the third Lion goal.
Kolongowski had to miss the first game of the season due to a back injury. Since that time she has returned and established herself as an agressive player. Today she scored her first career goal, and also added another goal and an assist to her credit this weekend.
“She’s comming on strong,” said Morett, “especially since her bad back.”
The Lady Lions received a team warning in the first half for having a player within five yards of a free shot. During the second half, in a similar incident, Chris Blais was ejected. The loss of a player did not phase the Lady Lions.
McGinley scored the last Lion goal five minutes later, when she chipped a shot over the Leopard goalkeeper’s head. The Lady Lions out shot the Leopards 20-6.
“It’s really difficult playing on grass,” said Morett, “but they hustled like crazy. Plus we we were a player down the second half.”
Morett is more than elated with the Lady Lion’s performance to date. They have moved up one from No. 5 to No. 4 in the NCAA poll, and if they are consistent in their performance, they are likely to continue to climb the NCAA poll.
“This year’s team is the first team since I’ve been here that got the job done beyond my expectations,” closed Morett.