Part of release courtesy of Vassar College Sports Information
POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y. - The MIT field hockey team won a pair of games over the weekend to win the Betty Richey Tournament hosted by Vassar College and improve its ledger to 7-0, the best start in program history. The seven-game win streak is one short of the Institute record, set during a 13-3 campaign in 1995. The Engineers opened the weekend with a 3-2 win over Manhattanville on Saturday and followed that up by besting the host Brewers by the same score Sunday to capture the tournament title for the first time.
On Sunday, Tech scored all of its three goals in a nine minute
span of the opening period and held off a furious effort by Vassar
for a 3-2 championship victory in the 21st edition of the
tournament. All of MIT's offense, which proved enough, came in the
first half. The Engineers got two first half goals from freshman
Kimberly Barker, who was named the Tournament MVP and a third goal
by junior Danielle Smith. Those goals were clumped together,
beginning at the 7:50 mark when Barker scored her first tally on a
breakaway following a long feed from the defensive third.
Barker's second tally, which was assisted by Smith, followed a rush
toward goal. When Vassar goalie, Rachel Clarkin-Breslin, came out
to stop the attack, Barker juked around her for the game's second
goal at 14:28. Smith pushed the MIT lead to 3-0 slightly less than
three minutes later with a goal in traffic in front of the
cage.
The Brewers had two golden opportunities to stem that assault as
senior forward Jennie McAllister had back-to-back shots snuffed by
MIT's junior goalie Keri Dixon, who made five saves in the game,
perhaps none bigger than those against McAllister. Playing her best
game of the season, McAllister had four shots on goal.
With eight minutes left in the first half, Vassar solved Dixon's
riddle. Freshman Rebecca Smith notched her first career goal,
following up a deflected save, to cut the MIT lead to 3-1. Despite
an aggressive second half, Vassar couldn't slice into the MIT lead
until the game had ended, albeit on a foul. Sophomore Katy Hwang
scored her second goal of the season following a penalty corner to
a 3-2 finale.
Vassar's midfield game was relentless in the second half. The
Engineers didn't produce a single shot on goal, but the Brewers
could only muster two shots. Until the last play, neither team had
a shot on cage for the final 25 minutes.
On Saturday afternoon, MIT scored two goals in the first half
and held off a second half Manhattanville comeback to win 3-2 and
move on to the championship game.
The Engineers got goals from Anna Teruya and Kimberly Barker within
the first 15 minutes of the first half and appeared in control,
taking that 2-0 lead into halftime. The game was much more even in
the second half, however, as Manhattanville out-shot MIT 8-2. The
Valiants cut the lead to 2-1 on a goal by Jen Ascencio with 16:14
to play. MIT went ahead 3-1 on a goal by Kameron Klauber less than
four minutes later, but Manhattanville again cut the lead to 3-2 on
a goal by Kayla Meenan. MIT held off several Manhattanville threats
in the final ten minutes to hold on for the win and stay
undefeated.
In addition to Tournament MVP Barker, freshman midfielder Molly
McShane, junior defenseman Alex Wright and goalie Dixon also
received All-Tournament nods.
Tech will now be off for more than a week before returning to action at Nichols on September 22 where it will try to match the program record for consecutive wins.