Box Score
Junior F
Rachel McCarthy (Reading, Mass.) scored two goals and senior M
Vanessa Kent (Charlton, Mass.) added one as No. 5 UMass Lowell defeated Assumption College, 3-0, Thursday night in a non-conference field hockey match at Cushing Field.
With the win, UMass Lowell improved to 14-3 and ends the regular season Saturday at American International College (5:00). Northeast-10 Conference Tournament pairings are expected to be announced Sunday with the quarterfinal round beginning Wednesday, Oct. 24 and the semifinal and final Oct. 27-28 at the highest remaining seed.
Assumption slipped to 7-10 overall and hosts Franklin Pierce Saturday at 12:00.
After a first half in which UMass Lowell outshot Assumption 12-3 and was awarded 11 corners to the Greyhounds' one, McCarthy put UMass Lowell on the board with 44 seconds remaining when she took a corner from sophomore
Bianca Jones (Watertown, Mass.) and converted off a crafty give-and-go with senior D
Sarah Wilcox (Old Town, Maine).
The River Hawks maintained the pressure in the early minutes of the second half and McCarthy scored her 22
nd of the season when she meandered deep into the Assumption crease and drove home inside the right post unassisted.
Kent capped the scoring three minutes later when she possessed on the right side of the goal and fired by junior GK Heather Philbrick, who was shielded by a scramble in front of the cage.
Junior GK
Melanie Hopkins (Harwich, Mass.), who played the first 47 minutes before making way for freshman
Bryanna Bourbeau (Litchfield, N.H.), did well to keep the Greyhounds from opening the scoring like they did in the Sept. 22 meeting in Worcester (a 4-1 UMass Lowell win).
Freshman F Maria Beatrice, who scored Assumption's goal in the prior meeting, found herself on a breakaway in the ninth minute, but Hopkins came off her line to smother before Beatrice could shoot.
In the 28
th minute, freshman M Sarah Frahm shot hard and high from the left side of the cage, but Hopkins anticipated well and batted the shot off the endline, her only save of the game.
Philbrick stopped 17 shots for the Greyhounds.