It’s Saturday, November 23, 2019. Here’s what’s been going on lately in Saint Anselm College sports.
Field Hockey
After two overtime periods, Saint Anselm clinched a berth in the NCAA Division II Tournament final with a 1-0 victory over East Stroudsburg on Friday.
The goal came off a penalty stroke from junior Emily Bevens (Pelham, N.H.). Beven’s moment came following a shot from senior Hannah Friend (North Easton, Mass.), which spilled into the goal mouth following a save and resulted in a defensive infraction.
The Hawks, who came into the NCAA Semifinals converting only one of their five chances on penalty strokes all season, turned to Bevens. The junior converted with a shot on the left side of the goal, beating East Stroudsburg senior Maddie Richie (Pilesgrove, N.J.) for her first goal since Oct. 7, 2017 against New Haven.
Bevens’ goal was her team’s fifth shot of the overtime period, a dramatic change from only two shots fired by Saint Anselm through regulation time. The Warriors took seven shots in four periods of regulation time, but it was all Saint Anselm in the overtime stanzas.
This marked the 14th shutout of the season for goaltender Julia Hand (Reading, Mass.), the 23rd of her career and the 20th of the season of the Hawks, who have not allowed a goal in any of their wins so far.
Saint Anselm will face West Chester for the national championship at 1 p.m. on Sunday.
Women’s Volleyball
Outside of a possible NCAA Tournament berth yet to be determined, the Hawks’ season ended on Friday with a five-set loss to Bentley in the Northeast-10 Conference Tournament semifinals.
Junior Elise Jolly (Nashua, N.H.) had a career-high 20 kills, junior Jordan Schamp (Plymouth, Mich.) had 16 kills.
Men’s Ice Hockey
Despite a 53-24 shots on goal advantage, the Hawks fell to crosstown rival Southern New Hampshire University on Friday at home, 4-3.
Saint Anselm built a 2-0 lead thanks to goals from Anthony Iacullo (Barrington, Ill.) and senior Ryan Spillane (Franklin, Mass.)
After the Penmen countered with four unanswered goals, sophomore Killian Hammersmith (Glen Ellyn, Ill.) put the Hawks back within one just 55 seconds into the third period.
With the loss, Saint Anselm will now have to sweep both of their followup matches with the Penmen in February to avoid dropping points in the Queen City Cup standings.
In the meantime, the Hawks (3-3-1, 2-1-1 Northeast-10) will head to Post University on Saturday, Nov. 23 for a 7 p.m. matchup.
