Manchester,
N.H. - In what was essentially a must-win game,
the Bryant Field Hockey team responded with four unanswered goals
in 20 minutes in the second half to prevail with a 4-2 win over St.
Anselm Thursday afternoon.
Courtney O'Brien (Tewksbury, Mass.) led the way
with one goal and two assists, while co-captain Laynie
Sadler (Rehoboth, Mass.) added a goal and an assist.
After being dominated and outshot 5-1 in the first half and
outscored 1-0, the Bulldogs woke up just 1:19 into the second half
when freshman Caitlan Johnson
(Walpole,
Mass.) blasted a shot past
St.Anselm goaltender Riley Haddock off a Sadler corner pass. It was
Johnson's sixth tally of the year.
Sadler gave the Bulldogs the lead two-minutes later, with
O'Brien setting her up beautifully for her eighth goal of the
season.
Sadler's streak of consecutive points on Bryant goals would end
at 12 straight Bulldog goals when Shana Libman (Attleboro,
Mass.) made it 3-1 in the 46th minute, scoring
off another corner, that was caused by senior co-captain
Michaela Dwyer
(Buskirk,
N.Y.) drawing the foul. O'Brien
notched the assist.
O'Brien put the game away ten minutes later, getting her own
rebound and putting it past Haddock to make it 4-1.
Kundayi Mawema
(Hare,
Zimbabwe) kept the Bulldogs close
in the first half and finished with six saves. The Bulldogs outshot
St. Anselm 11-7 in the second half.
With the win, Bryant (7-7, 6-5 NE-10) retained possession of the
sixth and final playoff spot in the Northeast-10. The Bulldogs will
host seventh-ranked UMass-Lowell Saturday night (7 p.m.) at the
Bryant Turf Complex.
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