WELLESLEY, Mass. – No. 3 seed Wellesley College field hockey defeated No. 6 Springfield College, 2-1, in the NEWMAC Field Hockey First Round on Tuesday night at Butler Stadium.
Wellesley (8-10) will take the short drive to play No. 2 seed and No. 17 ranked Babson College on Thursday, November 5 at 6:00 PM in the NEWMAC Semifinals. Wellesley last played in the semifinals in 2024, which was also at Babson.
After a scoreless first quarter, the home team took advantage of a penalty corner, which would prove to be the scoring theme throughout the contest for both teams. Sophomore
Meera Pandey (Ann Arbor, Mich.) inserted the corner to the top of the circle where it was stopped by first-year
Madison Macciocca (West Chester, Pa.). First-year
Caitlin Stratton (Wilbraham, Mass.) took an immediate shot that went past everyone and into the right side of the cage for the 1-0 Wellesley lead, 2:11 into the second frame.
Five minutes later, Springfield (11-8) had a couple of penalty corners that resulted in a few great scoring opportunities in close, but a pair of saves by junior
Hannah Simmonds (Austin, Texas) and a defensive save from junior
Gabi Chen (Mountain View, Calif.) kept the Pride off the board.
Springfield then used a penalty corner to set up the game-tying goal midway through the third quarter. With a flurry of activity in front of the Wellesley goalie, who eventually hit the turf to try to stop any potential shots, sophomore Maddie O'Brien (Franklin, Mass.) was able to poke the ball through to pull the visitors even.
Wellesley answered three minutes later to retake a one goal lead. Pandey inserted another penalty corner to junior teammate
Madeline Hamstra (Houston, Texas) who ripped a shot towards the left side of the cage. Senior
Marguerite Greene (South Boston, Mass.) was just in front and redirected the ball past the goalie for the eventual game-winning goal.
Springfield pulled its goalie with 4:40 to play in regulation for an extra attacker, but the Wellesley defense and Simmonds did their job to secure the 2-1 victory.
Simmonds finished with eight saves for Wellesley. Sophomore goalie Sam Orcutt (Forestdale, Mass.) played 55:20 for the Pride and allowed two goals with two saves.
