No. 3 Field Hockey Downs No. 6 Mount Ida in GNAC First Round

PAXTON, Mass.—The third-seeded Anna Maria College field hockey team downed the sixth-seeded Mustangs of Anna Maria College 5-1 in the first round of the Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) tournament on Saturday morning.

With the win, the AMCATS improve to 13-6 overall, while the Mustangs see their season come to a close at 4-13.

MOVING ON

With today's victory, the AMCATS advance to the GNAC Semifinal round and will travel to face No. 2 Saint Joseph's (Maine) on Wednesday, November 4^th.

HOW IT HAPPENED

The AMCATS held a 20-10 advantage in shots and a 16-8 lead in shots-on-goal en route to the victory. Anna Maria scored early and frequently, taking a 1-0 in the second minute of the game and holding a 4-0 advantage at halftime.

SCORING

First Half: The AMCATS only needed 1:57 to get on the board, as Kayla Lapierre (Worcester, Mass.) tipped in a shot off of a pass by Kylie Dalbec (Portland, Maine). Dalbec assisted on the team's second goal as well, feeding it in from outside the circle to Lauren Beauregard (Hubbardston, Mass.), who chopped the ball with her stick to redirect the ball high and over the pads of the Mount Ida goaltender.

INSTANT HIGHLIGHT: Beauregard from Dalbec for @amcat_fieldhockey's second goal of @the_gnac first round tournament game against @mtidaathletics! #AMCATNation #instanthighlight #theGNAC

A video posted by Anna Maria College Athletics (@goamcats) on Oct 31, 2015 at 7:37am PDT

Beauregard fed Lauren DiPillo (Canton, Mass.) for the AMCATS' third goal at the 21:26 mark, and the AMCATS rounded out the first half with a goal by Denver, assisted by Dalbec, in the 25^th minute.

Second Half: The Mustangs got in the board in the in the 59^th minute as Hayley Napier (Fairhaven, Mass.) shot was defensive saved by Shelby Looney (Leicester, Mass.). Napier got her own rebound and tipped it over to Alexa Francis (Rochester, Mass.), who stuffed tapped it on for the Mustangs first score.

The AMCATS needed less than two minutes to reclaim the five-score lead. The AMCATS worked the ball around the top of the circle off of a penalty corner, and Lapierre fed it into Denver, who one-touched it in.

GOALTENDERS

Senior Mary Kate Breen (Londonderry, Mass.) earned the win and stopped both shots-on-goal she faced in 35:54 of action. She was relieved by Bryanna Tobin (Deep River, Conn.), who made four saves in 34:06 of play.

Mount Ida netminder Emily McConnell (Lowell, Mass.) made 10 saves in defeat.

THE SERIES

The win extends Anna Maria's winning streak against the Mustangs to three wins, including a 3-1 win earlier this season and a 6-3 win last season.