Nick Lovett
Online Editor
The Springfield College field hockey team fell to 3-10 overall after a 3-2, last-second loss to Wellesley on Saturday afternoon. The Blue came into the game ranked No. 13 in the nation, and with the win improved their record to 13-2.
With just under a minute left in regulation, there was a scrum for the ball in front of the Springfield net. The referees blew the whistle and decided that Wellesley would be awarded a stroke, which is similar to a penalty shot. Junior Nathalie Gruet lined up to take the shot for the Blue, and put the ball into the bottom left-hand corner of the net for the game-winning goal.
That goal proved to be insurmountable as the Pride were not able to muster another scoring attempt before the clock expired.
“I thought we should have won. We had chances to,” said Pride head coach Melissa Sharpe. “It is very frustrating because we are playing extremely well…it’s tough because our record is far from reflective of how good we really are.”
The first shot of the game came on a Springfield corner that was stopped on a great save by Wellesley goalkeeper Brit Mscisz. The teams traded possession back and forth for a while until, at the 20-minute mark, Wellesley was able to strike first. Freshman Nikki Sharkin snuck home a goal after a small scrum in front of the net to give the Blue an early 1-0 lead.
The score remained the same for the rest of the first half as the Pride found themselves being beaten handily in possession time. Springfield equaled the Blue in shots and led 4-3 in corners, but they were not able to get any great scoring chances.
That changed four minutes into the second half, as Springfield forced the ball in deep before junior Sarah Ducharme was finally able to put the ball into the back of the net to tie the game at one. Sophomore Olivia Cabral had the assist on the goal.
After more trading of possession, the Blue were able to get a quality scoring chance, but Pride goalkeeper Juliana Barrasso made a sliding kick save to deny any scoring opportunity.
Shortly thereafter, Springfield took the lead on a Tori Stollmer goal which was assisted again by Cabral. The goal came with 11:37 left in the game.
The Blue responded with their own game-tying goal less than two minutes later when sophomore Anissa Sridhar streaked by the Pride defense and buried a goal past Barrasso.
Of the Pride’s 10 losses, seven of them have been one-goal games and three have gone into overtime.
Springfield will look to right the ship and build off their strong performance when they face Clark on the road this Tuesday at 7 p.m.