Sports

Field Hockey: Brown tops UM team

Kessler tallies career-high 20 saves

By Brett Frye

Posted on Sept. 11, 2008, at 12:00 a.m.

It was a long game for both teams, but in the end the University of Maine field hockey team came up just short. Despite outshooting Brown by a 36-to-11 margin, it fell 2-1 in a shootout on Sunday afternoon in Orono.

UMaine controlled play most of the game and got on the board first when sophomore Maire Dineen scored 12 minutes into the first half. That would be the only goal until Brown scored the equalizer with 3:06 left in regulation on a goal by Nora Malgieri.

Neither side could break the tie and after two 15-minute overtime periods, the game moved to a shootout.

In the shootout, the Bears outscored UMaine 3-1. Freshman Kelly Newton scored the only goal for the Black Bears in the shootout.

“I’ve never gone through an entire set of overtime before because it’s 7-on-7,” said UMaine Head Coach Josette Babineau. “It’s usually decided in overtime.”

Coach Babineau was impressed with the play of her young goalie, freshman Elizabeth Anderson.

“To be in that kind of pressure as a freshman goalie, she really did hold up well.”

Newton, last week’s America East Rookie of the Week, played well again for the Black Bears, leading the team in shots and creating some good scoring opportunities.

Brown’s goalie, Lauren Kessler, came up big in overtime and in the shootout to hold the UMaine offense in check. She finished with a career-high 20 saves.

“We had a couple chances we couldn’t connect and the goalie [Kessler] played an unbelievable game,” said senior Gigi Niekrash. “We dominated in the first half of the game and in both overtimes. It’s a tough loss, but we’re a young team and this will help us grow.”

UMaine falls to 1-2 on the season with the loss. They travel to Burlington, Vt., to take on Monmouth and Ohio State next weekend.

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 11th, 2008, 12:00 am. You can follow any responses to this article through the RSS feed.