WNEC Swings Past Field Hockey, 7-0
CHICOPEE, Mass. – Elms College sophomore goalkeeper Alexandra Bonavita (Agawam, Mass.) notched 19 saves, but a two-goal effort from Western New England College's (WNEC) Erin Griffin (Lowell, Mass.) lifted the Golden Bears to a 7-0 victory over the Blazers in Thursday afternoon's non-conference field hockey game at Leary Field.
With the loss, Elms concludes its season at 0-17 overall. WNEC improves to 9-10 on the season.
WNEC found the back of the net with three early goals as Griffin connected on a feed from Lindsay Lalonde (East Middlebury, Vt.) at the 8:51 mark, before Aimee O'Connell (Rome, N.Y.) and Jaynie Mueller (Colorado Springs, Co.) followed with unassisted goals in the 10th and 11th minutes respectively.
Elms received a solid defensive effort from senior Heather Keith (South Hadley, Mass.), junior Emily McInerney (Glastonbury, Conn.), freshmen Julie Hurley (Palmer, Mass.) and Brianna Lyons (Canton, Mass.) and sophomore Rachel Butt (Agawam, Mass.) to help keep the Blazers' deficit at three goals heading into intermission.
At the 41:56 mark of the second period, Sarah Race (Cazenovia, N.Y.) extended the Golden Bears' lead to 4-0 with an unassisted strike to the left corner of the cage.
WNEC put the contest out of reach with three scores between the 62:52 and 65:27 marks as Griffin capitalized on a penalty corner reception from O'Connell to tally her second goal of the game, Caitlin Foster (Hyde Park, N.Y.) scored on a cross from Sarah Antosik (South Windsor, Conn.) and Amy Hedberg (Guildford, Conn.) scored on a pass from Kim Perez (Westfield, Mass.) to set the score at 7-0.
The Golden Bears defense kept Elms out of scoring range for the majority of the game as goalkeeper Kaitlyn Hall (Pawtucket, R.I.) started the first half and did not need to make a save. Brittney O'Brien (Carver, Mass.) played 21:30 of the second half before Anneliese Lake (Towaco, N.J.) entered for the final 13:30.
