SOUTH HADLEY, Mass. -- Junior forward Ally Slicer (Waterford, Maine) scored with 1:39 remaining in sudden-victory overtime, giving visiting the Wheaton College field hockey team a 1-0 victory over host Mount Holyoke College this afternoon in New England Women's & Men's Athletic Conference play at the MHC Turf in South Hadley, Mass.
The Lyons improve to 5-5 overall and 2-2 in league play, while the MHC Lyons fall to 4-6 and 0-3.
Wheaton junior goalie Grace Ferguson (Williston, Vt.) was brilliant, matching her career high with 15 saves to earn her third shutout of the season and seventh of her career. Her save total is the most in a shutout for a Lyon since at least 2008. The Wheaton defense tallied three defensive saves in holding Mount Holyoke scoreless despite a 29-17 advantage in shots and a 15-2 advantage in penalty corners for the home team.
Following more than 68 scoreless minutes of action, Slicer made an outstanding individual play to end the game, winning a loose ball to get past a MHC defender, then pushing the ball into a shooting lane for a 10-foot finish inside the far right post. The goal was Slicer's second this season for Wheaton.
A scoreless but fast-paced first half of regulation time saw both teams take eight shots, with the home team holding a 6-3 advantage in the first quarter and the Lyons countering with a 5-2 edge in the second quarter.
Mount Holyoke kept the ball in Wheaton's defensive end for much of the third quarter and out-shot the visitors 11-0 in the period, including a sequence of five penalty corners and nine shots within two minutes of action. In that sequence, senior defender Abby Miller (Andover, Mass.) had a defensive save on MHC junior midfielder Mackenzie Hillman (Newington, Conn.), junior defender Maddie Labreck (Rollinsford, N.H.) had a defensive save against Mount Holyoke junior midfielder Scout Climie (Guilford, Conn.), one shot was blocked, two went wide, and Ferguson made four saves to preserve the scoreless tie.
The final five minutes of regulation exemplified the game's intensity and back-and-forth pace. Mount Holyoke senior goalie Ainsley Gruener (Topsfield, Mass.) made back-to-back saves on sophomore midfielder Kayla Wilonski (Wallingford, Conn.) and first year midfielder Gia Marotta (Lynnfield, Mass.) on the Lyons' second penalty corner late in the game, then made another stop on junior forward Hannah Fortin (South Dartmouth, Mass.) with 2:35 left. MHC's final corner of regulation, taken with 1:48 remaining, resulted in an extended standoff in the Wheaton circle, with Ferguson stopping a point-blank shot by junior forward Diane Lee (Boston, Mass.), then Miller making a defensive save on sophomore forward MJ Owens (Fairfield, Conn.) on the follow.
Mount Holyoke first-year midfielder Rory Bernardo (Oaklyn, N.J.) threatened to end the game with three shots saved by Ferguson in overtime, and Lee nearly connected on the rebound of the third attempt with 6:45 left in OT. Prior to that, MHC senior defender Taylor Vettori (Etna, N.H.) hustled back on a Lyon breakaway to make a defensive save on an attempt by Wilonski. Slicer collected the rebound and sent a shot over the Mount Holyoke cage.
The Lyons return to the turf on Tuesday, October 7 when they host Johnson & Wales University on Nordin Field at 7:00 p.m., while MHC next plays at Wellesley on the same night at 6:00 p.m.
