Sports

Field hockey up one, down one

By Alissa Brown

Posted on Sept. 24, 2007, at 12:00 a.m.

The University of Maine field hockey team managed to keep their winning streak going at their home field on Saturday, Sept. 22. After an evenly matched game, the Black Bears finally were able to beat Rhode Island, 1-0, 34 seconds into the sudden-death overtime.

The first half of the game seemed to be mostly midfield playing, the ball bouncing between Rhode Island players and the Black Bears, with neither team clearly dominating over the other. It got more exciting when the Black Bears were awarded a drive with about two minutes left on the clock in the first half and Rhode Island got a break-away drive, heading right for the goal with one minute left in the game. The shot just missed, soaring over the crossbar and behind the goal. The Black Bears then proceeded with a long hit that got the ball back down the field, making the last 19 seconds of the first half filled with hopeful cheers from the fans in the stands.

After halftime, the game began to pick up and seemed to pick up pace, with the first shot on goal for the University of Maine only 20 seconds in. The first shot on goal for Rhode Island in the second half happened at 29:42, blocked by Black Bear goalie Maygan Cassarino. Rhode Island seemed in control of things for a while after that, getting two corners, one at 28:00 and the other at 25:30. Those were interrupted briefly by a breakaway carried down the field by Black Bear Kim MacDonald. Shortly before the second corner, Black Bear player Meire Dineen received a green card.

The Black Bears began to take control of the field, dominating with a shot on goal by No. 7 Jackie D’Amato and a corner at 15:57. The game continued in this fashion until the clock ran out, when the two teams went into a brief overtime. Thirty-four seconds had run on the clock when senior Amy Zdrojesky scored with an assist from Kim MacDonald, winning the game.

The team’s win streak came to an abrupt end Sunday afternoon when they suffered a tough 3-2 loss to Providence at home.

The team goes to Albany Saturday, Sept. 29, for their next matchup.

This entry was posted on Monday, September 24th, 2007, 12:00 am. You can follow any responses to this article through the RSS feed.