FAIRFIELD, Conn. – On the team's annual senior day, the Fairfield University field hockey team gave the best gift that it could the Class of 2022. The Stags completed a conference weekend sweep with today's 3-0 victory over Sacred Heart University, 48 hours after Friday's 2-0 decision over Rider.
Senior
Malen Iglesias put forth another outstanding offensive effort with a pair of goals while classmate
Jolanda Richter rounded out the scoring to help the Stags earn their seventh win of the season and their third in Northeast Conference play. While the win was important to Head Coach
Jackie Kane, she also wanted to give a fitting result to a class who has accomplished so much in the last four years.
Coach Kane placed all nine seniors into the starting lineup this afternoon, and made sure that all nine were on the field when the final horn blew to end the game. In between, it was a collective effort from the entire team to earn a win against Sacred Heart, which entered this match with a 2-0 mark in NEC play.
"We saw something different in the way they were defending us so it took us a quarter to make adjustments," Coach Kane said. "But we were able to adjust and manipulate things back to our game. Our corners were effective and that helped open things up offensively as well."
The first goal came off a penalty corner insertion from graduate student
Danielle Profita, who sent the ball to the top of the circle where
Gabby Saxon stopped the ball for Iglesias. The midfielder flicked the ball into the far corner just inside the post to put the Stags in the lead.
While the one-goal lead was marginal in such a pivotal game, the Stags defense kept Sacred Heart from mounting any flow offensively, stepping into passing lanes and deflecting balls away from danger consistently as it has all season long. Sacred Heart was three shots in the game, all coming in the second half with none of those attempts reaching the goal.
"
Mackenzie Boyle has been our unsung hero all year," Coach Kane said. "She steps into balls constantly and offers us so much going forward. And
Erica Kelly has come up and played well to add another dimension defensively. We have a really solid defense that works hard to keep opponents off balance and frustrated."
The Stags took complete control of the game in the final quarter when they put two more goals on the scoreboard. The first of the two fourth-quarter goals came off the stick of
Madison Hoskins, who took advantage of
Julianna Kratz's initial shot that was deflected onto her own stick. Hoskins quickly pushed the ball past the goalkeeper to put Fairfield in front by a 2-0 count.
Later in the quarter, Iglesias worked some more magic inside the circle when she retained possession of a loose ball on the right side of the circle and sent a shot back to the far post for her sixth goal of the season.
Fairfield goalkeeper
Zoe Rosen earned her fifth shutout of the season and extended her scoreless minutes streak to 131 minutes, last surrendering a goal with 11 minutes remaining in the Lafayette game.
The Stags will return to the pitch for another NEC match when they travel to Wagner College on Friday afternoon. Fairfield finishes up the weekend with a home game against Hofstra University on Sunday, October 17 at 1 pm.
