The field hockey team beat the Hamilton Continentals Friday and lost to the St. Lawrence Saints Saturday to finish up their UCAA play. The Red Hawks finished 3-4 in conference.
The Continentals were able to get on the board first with a goal by Eden Self, assisted by Erin Turcot seven minutes into the game.
RPI and Hamilton fought for control of the ball for most of the first half, resulting in a lot of back and forth play. Laurie Young tied the game for the Red Hawks with 16 minutes left in the half with an unassisted goal that she was able to bounce over goalie Sarah Baldwin.
Hamilton started quickly in the second half, with Self scoring again only four minutes in. Turcot tallied another assist on the goal. Ten minutes later, captain Sondra Sherman tied the game again for RPI from a nice pass by Patty Rodziewicz.
Head Coach Bridget LaNoir called a timeout with just less than 10 minutes left on the clock. The quick break in action must have helped the Red Hawks, who only needed 22 seconds to take the lead. Sherman was able to find the ball in front of the goal and shot it in to give RPI a 3-2 edge and the win.
Hamilton goalies Baldwin and Penelope Noble had two saves, and RPI’s Amanda Lund saved five.
Rensselaer had a key match-up in their last UCAA game of the season against St. Lawrence on a very windy Saturday afternoon. The Saints started with a fluky goal three minutes into the game. The wind blew Lund’s goal over and Jenny Heffler was able to push the ball at the net before the referees stopped play to fix the goal to put the Saints up 1-0. Heffler scored again two minutes later, to increase the Saints’ lead to two.
RPI responded with two goals in five minutes. Young faked the ball past goalie Amelia Gomez, who came out to challenge, to start the scoring for the Red Hawks. She continued the offensive push with another goal, assisted by Sherman. Erin Lloyd scored for the Saints after a penalty corner to make it 3-2.
The second half started with Nicola Reid scoring an insurance goal for the Saints. During the rest of the half, St. Lawrence fired 12 shots towards the RPI net. The Red Hawks struggled to get some offensive chances, but the St. Lawrence defense held them to only seven shots in the game.
Lund made 11 saves in the loss, while Gomez saved three. Both Sherman and Young had an outstanding weekend, tallying six goals and an assist between them.
The Red Hawks play their final game of the regular season today at Middlebury.
With the win against Hamilton, the Red Hawks were able to make the UCAA Championships which will be held November 8 and 9 at William Smith.
