2005
NCAA NEW ENGLAND
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“Franklin
Pierce is a team we respect,” said Assumption Head Coach Neil
Stafford. “But I really think a lot of credit should be given
to my team. We’ve made major strides since last year and I thought we
really took it to them, but
just could not finish. When you don’t finish in championship games,
you don’t advance.”
Senior All-Americans Sonya Hughes (Balbriggan, Ireland)
and Laura Hislop (Belfast, Northern Ireland) again led
Franklin Pierce with a goal apiece. The Ravens finished with a 6-1
advantage in shots in the tightly contested match.
Hughes gave Franklin Pierce a much-needed lead just 8:05 into the
match when she headed in a serve from junior Mia Makarainen (Espoo,
Finland) from the left side on the near post.
“I called for the ball and Mia put it right on my head, I didn’t have to do anything really,” said Hughes. “It was huge to get on top today. Assumption has a good defense and they have a hard time scoring goals. We knew if we could just get the second, they wouldn’t be able to score twice on us.”
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Hislop
iced the match with a superb strike from a low angle on the left side
with the inside of her left foot that nestled into the upper right
corner with 10:37 to play.
“I just turned and hit it, smacked it,” said Hislop. “They
thought it was a cross, but it was a shot all the way, we needed it
too.”
“It was a world-class finish,” said Stafford. “Both were
great goals and I’d much rather go out on those goals than the 35-yard
blast last week.” Franklin Pierce topped Assumption 1-0 with a
long-range Hughes goal off a turnover with just 36-seconds left in
regulation.
Sophomore Jenna Mello (Londonderry, N.H./Londonderry)
registered her eighth shutout of the season without making a save, while
Assumption sophomore Lauren Matysiak (Holden, Mass./Wachusett
Regional) stopped four shots.
The Greyhounds closest scoring chance came early in the match
after a corner kick, when a loose ball at the top of the six in the
center of the penalty area suddenly trickled towards the goal line, but
was cleared by the Franklin Pierce defense.
“It’s good to get out of the region,” said Franklin Pierce Head Coach Jeff Bailey. “It’s hard to play some of these teams two or three times, so it will be nice to finally play someone different. We don’t know anything about (West Chester), they didn’t play out of their region much and no one from our region, but we know they will be a quality team. We need to sort ourselves out this week, because I didn’t think we played well overall today. It looked like Merrimack took a lot out of us, perhaps more mentally than physically.”