Strong First Half Powers Field Hockey Past Becker College, 4-1

CHICOPEE, Mass. – Elms College had four different players net first half goals as the Blazers notched a 4-1 victory over Becker College in Tuesday afternoon's New England Collegiate Conference (NECC) field hockey game at Leary Field.

With the win, Elms improves to 3-10 on the season, 2-0 in conference action, while Becker moves to 0-14 overall, 0-2 in NECC play.

Elms broke the scoreless tie to start the game in the fourth minute of action when junior forward Kayla Narey (South Hadley, Mass.) corralled a pass from junior forward Meghan Goodrow (Sunderland, Mass.) and deposited the ball into the back of the net to give the Blazers the early lead.

At the 11:51 mark, sophomore forward Kristina Kopyscinski's (Agawam, Mass.) pass from the left side in front of the goal found the stick of sophomore Abby McNulty (Bedford, Mass.) who connected for Elms' second goal of the contest to make it 2-0. 

Kopyscinski was then on the scoring end of a penalty corner service from senior midfielder Brianna Lyons (Canton, Mass.) in the 31^st minute to give the Blazers a 3-0 cushion.

Becker answered 3:55 later when Katherine DiMascio (Braintree, Mass.) found the back of the cage following a penalty corner feed from Amy Giguere (Colrain, Mass.) to cut the Hawks deficit to 3-1.

Elms quickly responded when junior forward Tatiana Frizzell (Brattleboro, Vt.) fired in a shot following a cross from Goodrow at the 34:17 mark to give the Blazers a 4-1 lead at intermission.

In the second half Becker edged Elms in shots, 9-6 and Blazer's sophomore goalkeeper Samantha Alvino (Holtsville, N.Y.) made five of her six saves in the second half to help seal the victory.

Becker goalkeeper Gabrielle Gallo (Northport, N.Y.) made six saves in the losing effort with four of them coming in the first stanza.

Elms returns to league action on Saturday, October 12 when it travels to Paxton, Mass. to take on Anna Maria College at 11:00 a.m.