EAST STROUDSBURG, Pa. – The Saint Anselm College field hockey team came out on the losing end of a 2-1 decision against the Warriors of East Stroudsburg University on Sunday at Whitenight Field.
Saint Anselm, the No. 3-ranked team in NCAA Division II, has lost two consecutive games for the first time since November 2018, dropping to 3-2 following the non-league contest. East Stroudsburg (5-2) has won five consecutive games and is the seventh-ranked program in the country.
The game was a re-match of the 2019 NCAA Division II National Championship semifinals game that was won, 1-0, by Saint Anselm via an overtime penalty stroke. Fast forward to Sunday, it was East Stroudsburg who used a fourth-quarter penalty stroke to push past Saint Anselm in the non-conference showdown.
With the score tied at one to start the fourth quarter, East Stroudsburg sent a left-to-right cross along the goal line from the left-side corner and the play was whistled dead in front as an infraction was called on Saint Anselm. Taking the stroke, Olivia Breen did not miss her chance, firing the ball to the left of Hawks backstop Mackenzie McConnell (Concord Township, Maine) for the go-ahead marker with 13:11 to go in regulation time.
The Hawks did not fire another shot for the remainder of the game and only mustered one shot, a misfire by junior Maeve Murphy (Scituate, Mass.), in the final 30 minutes of regulation time. East Stroudsburg had chances upon chances to extend the score during this span, earning five penalty corners and firing six total shots.
ESU got on the scoreboard first, cashing in with just 17:20 elapsed on the first-half game clock thanks to a Morgan Mesenbrink tally. Saint Anselm did well to respond in the second quarter's final two minutes as Shelby Dunn (Yarmouthport, Mass.) connected with Joanna Archambault (Andover, Mass.) for the game-tying goal with 1:04 to go before halftime.
For Archambault, it is her first collegiate goal in her 16th collegiate game. Dunn has now logged eight points of offense (3-2=8) across her first 15 career games on the Hilltop.
Saint Anselm controlled the second quarter, firing four of the stanza's seven shots while also earning two penalty corners. It was the Warriors, however, that finished the game with a 12-7 shots advantage – the hosts were awarded 10 of the game's 12 penalty corners as well.
McConnell made five saves in the losing effort, yielding two goals. East Stroudsburg's Amy Supey only stopped two shots on net, conceding only the goal by Archambault in 60 minutes of game play.
Saint Anselm returns home this Wednesday, Sept. 22 for a 5 p.m. showdown with Saint Michael's. The Hawks have won seven consecutive games against the Purple Knights, outscoring their Green Mountain State rivals by a 21-to-3 margin in that span.
