For Immediate Release
October 28, 2011
North Andover, Mass. - Both higher seeded teams won and advanced to the Northeast-10 Field Hockey Championship final, which will be played Sunday afternoon at 12 p.m. Top-seeded Merrimack defeated American International College, while second-seeded UMass Lowell knocked off Stonehill Friday night at Merrimack College.
#1 Merrimack 5, #5 American International College 2
Top-seeded and fourth-ranked Merrimack College jumped out to an early 2-0 lead and never looked back on its way to a 5-2 Northeast-10 Championship Tournament semifinal victory over the fifth-seeded American International College field hockey team Friday night.
Junior forward April Daugherty put Merrimack ahead just 3:12 into the match and junior midfielder/back Katie Zubkus made it a 2-0 game just 40 seconds later. Daugherty tallied her second goal of the match in the in the 28th-minute off a feed from junior midfielder Jen Otis to give the Warriors a 3-0 lead.
Junior midfielder Lisa Duckles got American Int'l on the board with 1:57 left in the first half to cut the deficit to 3-1, but sophomore forward/midfielder Jessica Otis scored twice in a span of 10 minutes in the later stage of the second half to put the game away. Amerian Int'l freshman forward Aimie Angeletti scored at 70 minutes for the 5-2 final.
#2 UMass Lowell 3, #6 Stonehill 1
Sophomore goalkeeper Melanie Hopkins stopped four shots in the first 12 minutes and saved a penalty stroke later in the first half to backstop No. 2 UMass Lowell over No. 6 Stonehill Friday afternoon in the Northeast-10 Conference Field Hockey Tournament Semifinal at Warrior Field.
With the victory, UMass Lowell earns its eighth trip in nine years to the NE-10 Championship match Sunday at 12:00 and will play No. 1 Merrimack, a 5-2 winner over No. 5 American International.
UMass Lowell came away from an early onslaught unscathed as Stonehill outshot the River Hawks 7-1 in the first 12 minutes, four of which were saved by Hopkins.
The Northeast-10 will be providing live coverage of the championship final game on Sunday, October 30th at 12 p.m. for free at www.northeast10.org and at www.northeast10.tv. For up-to-the minute updates and scores from all of the field hockey championship games, follow us on Twitter @TheNortheast10
2011 Northeast-10 Field Hockey Championship
Sunday, October 30th
Championship - Final
#1 Merrimack vs. #2 UMass Lowell 12 p.m.
