By Joe Arruda
@joearruda9
After a Twitter poll released on Sunday evening, women’s soccer’s Karly Suppicich edged field hockey’s Emma Wesoloski by just seven percent of the vote. The poll received exactly 200 votes, with women’s soccer taking home a win for the second consecutive week. Star Kaleigh Dale received the first Springfield Student Athlete of the Week award.
Suppicich made her way into the poll after she netted the game-winning goal in double overtime on Saturday to give the Pride the 2-1 win over Coast Guard. With just 2:07 remaining on the clock, Suppicich found herself one-on-one with the goalkeeper.
She fired into the left side of the net, securing the golden goal victory. As soon as the shot left her foot, Suppicich spread her arms, and her smile, out wide, prepared to embrace her teammates.
And embrace they did. Soon Suppicich found herself at the bottom of a pile that kept on growing.
“It feels unreal,” Suppicich told The Student’s Hayden Choate after the game. “I can’t believe that just happened.”
To make the moment even better, the game was played in front of a large homecoming crowd.
That goal was Suppicich’s second in as many games this week.
Field hockey’s Emma Wesoloski made a strong late push in the polls after the senior scored a goal that helped snap Springfield’s six-game losing streak in a 2-1 win at Nichols on Saturday. The field hockey team is now 3-7 with two home games approaching this week.
The other two nominees, both of which drew just four percent of the vote, were women’s soccer’s Amelia Harper and women’s volleyball’s Natalie Billet.
Harper, the Pride goalkeeper, registered a clean sheet on Wednesday, Oct. 1, with three saves. The junior transfer from Rockford University, and a native of Utah, has inserted themself into the starting position in net.
Harper started in seven games to this point for Springfield and has compiled 24 saves on a .800 save percentage.
Billet has emerged as a women’s volleyball mainstay in her first-year season. The outside hitter tallied 17 kills in the team’s five-set loss to MIT on Tuesday, Sept. 28. Through 15 matches, Billet has combined for 181 kills and 28 aces.
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On the men’s side, no Twitter poll was launched due to the fact that the men’s soccer team was the only to compete in the week. Instead, our editors have decided to name this week’s Athlete of the Week ourselves.
Jack Rosenberg, the men’s soccer team captain, has been a must-start since his first year on Alden Street. Now a senior, Rosenberg has already tallied five goals and an assist.
Over the week, he scored two goals that each came in 2-0 wins for the Pride. The first against Framingham State on Tuesday, Sept. 18, and the second just after our vote was made public on Tuesday, October 5.
With Rosenberg’s leadership and production, the men’s soccer team has seemed to drastically turn it around after a rough 4-13-1 2019 season and missing 2020.
The Pride sit at 6-4 with five games remaining on their schedule.
This week, the Twitter polls will be opened on Sunday evening, this time for both women’s and men’s student-athletes. The week includes golf’s MASCAC Championships, football’s first home game, a men’s and women’s cross country meet and games for every fall team.
Be sure to follow The Student on Twitter and Instagram, @TheSpfldStudent, so you don’t miss next week’s polls – you really won’t want to.