Preview: No. 4 Anna Maria vs. No. 5 Lasell - GNAC Field Hockey First Round
OVERVIEW
The fourth-seeded Anna Maria College field hockey team hosts No. 5 Lasell on Saturday at 11:00 a.m. for the Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) tournament first round.
HEAD-TO-HEAD
The two teams met last Saturday in the final regular season game of 2014 for both teams. Entering last weekend's game, both teams had already sealed their slot in the GNAC postseason, but with the 3-2 overtime win, the AMCATS sealed home-field advantage for the first round.
Senior Nichole Lowe (Saugus, Mass.) gave the AMCATS a 2-0 lead with back-to-back goals in the 35th and 46th minutes. With less than three minutes left to play in the game, the Lasers' Leah Sullivan (Mansfield, Mass.) and Courtney Braman (Gardner, Mass.) tallied two goals less than a minute apart to even the score to 2-2 and force overtime.
Anna Maria's Kylie Dalbec (Portland, Maine) needed just 3:49 to net the sudden-victory overtime goal, as she beat the lone defender standing in between her and the goaltender and shot low to the opposite corner.
Anna Maria outshot Lasell 28-12 on the afternoon. AMCATS' netminder Mary Kate Breen (Londonderry, N.H.) totaled four saves in the win, while Lasers goalkeeper Taylor Sheehan (Brewster, Mass.) posted 14 saves.
SCOUTING THE AMCATS
Anna Maria won both of its two games last week, including Saturday's win against Lasell and a 3-0 shutout of Bay Path earlier in the week. The AMCATS concluded GNAC play with a 3-3 record, with wins against Mound Ida and Rivier and losses to St. Joseph's, Johnson & Wales, and Simmons.
The AMCATS longest winning streak this season was a three-game stretch from Oct. 8-15, which included three-straight shutout wins against New England College, Rivier, and Regis. The streak was snapped with a 2-0 non-conference loss to WPI on Oct. 18th.
Dalbec, a junior, leads the entire GNAC in goals scored this season with 20, and also holds a league-best 45 points. Lowe has scored 13 goals this season and has a team-best nine assists for 35 points.
The AMCATS defensive unit has played together all season, as a majority of them have played in all 19 games this season, including Katherine Albro (Leicester, Mass.), Sarah Bess (West Barnstable, Mass.), Jacqueline Lapierre (Worcester, Mass.), and Emily Strandring (Worcester, Mass.). Jaqueline Lapierre has two defensive saves this season, while Strandring leads the team in that category with three.
In the midfield, sophomore Kayla Garczynski (Norwood, Mass.), junior Kayla Lapierre (Worcester, Mass.), and sophomore Kaitlyn Moran (Leicester, Mass.) have contributed on both sides of the ball. Kayla Lapeirre has a team third-best 19 points from six goals and seven assists. Garczynski has tallied three goals and three assists this season for nine points, while Moran has scored three goals and also holds a defensive save.
Junior goalkeeper Breen has started in 18 of the team's 19 games this season. She holds a 9-7 record in net and has stopped 75.9 percent of the shots she's faced. Breen has 82 saves on the season, and allows an average of 1.70 goals per game.
SCOUTING THE LASERS
Lasell enters Saturday's game with a 6-11 overall record and a 2-4 record in GNAC play. The team's GNAC wins came against Mount Ida and Rivier. Lasell's non-conference wins game against Wheelock, Regis, Becker, and Colby-Sawyer.
The Lasers were unable to string more than two wins together all season, with their last pair of back-to-back wins coming with a 4-2 win against Mount Ida on Oct. 18th and a 2-1 win against Colby-Sawyer on Oct. 22.
Offensively, the Lasers are led by junior Ashley Gleason (Suffield, Conn.) with six goals and seven assists for 19 points. Senior Nikita Soares (Westport, Mass.) has a team-leading eight goals along with three assists despite battling an injury and playing in just eight games all season. Senior Taylor Hulitzky (Medway, Mass.) has contrubted four goals and three assists for 11 points, while sophomore Braman holds four goals and an assist in 2014.
The Lasers defense has compiled four defensive saves this season as freshman Taylor Falco (Hazlet, N.J.), junior Danielle Hottin, senior Brianna Robbins (Auburn, Maine), and senior Kristine Jackson have each tallied one.
Lasell goaltender Taylor Sheehan (Brewster, Mass.) got has started in each of the last five games, including against Anna Maria last weekend. She holds a .744 save percentage and allows an average of 2.23 goals per game.
WHAT'S AT STAKE
The winner of Saturday's game advances to the semifinals on Wednesday, November 5 and will travel to take on the top-seeded Monks of Saint Joseph's College. The winner of the semifinal game will advance to the first-ever GNAC Championship game on Saturday, November 8th.
