In a game where goals were, at times, hard to come by, the Fairfield women’s field hockey team lost to conference foe New Hampshire Wildcats 3-2 in double overtime on Friday.

After a 30-minute delay due to weather, both teams came out ready to play on defense. The Stags were able to get off a number of shots in the opening minutes, but stingy team defense and excellent play by New Hampshire goalkeeper Carlie Tarbell kept Fairfield off the board.

The game remained scoreless until the 27-minute mark, when Lindsey Hatch ’15 scored on an assist from Hillary Fitts ’14 for the first goal of the game.

Fairfield maintained the 1-0 lead going into halftime, and kept the Wildcats off the board for a large part of the second half as well, until New Hampshire tied the score at one with less than 15 minutes to play.

Before the Stags could blink an eye, New Hampshire scored again, giving them the 2-1 lead with over 11 minutes to play. Senior goalkeeper Maddy Sposito continued to play lights out for the rest of the period, allowing Fairfield to tie the game at 2 with a late goal by Christy Starsinic, and send the game into overtime.

In the overtime periods, it was the battle between goalkeepers, as they matched each other shot for shot, keeping their teams alive.

After a scoreless first overtime, New Hampshire was able to control a deflection by Sposito and put it in the back of the net for the 3-2 winner, on a play that seemed to injure Sposito, keeping her from the start on Sunday.

“Maddie was a rockstar in the cage. Fifteen saves … playing injured,” said Head Coach Jackie Kane. “I mean, unbelievable. She kept us in the game.”

The loss was the third in four games for the Stags, who had previously won 5 straight and had an appearance in the national rankings for a week, at number 23.

“Overtime is a crapshoot. We had fouls and people out. When you’re a man down … it makes a huge difference.”

Coach Kane was high on the team’s defense overall for the game, calling it “a whole caliber above. It was really quite outstanding.”

With her goal in the first half, Hatch now has five goals on the season, second on the team only to Felicitas Heinen’s 10. She also assisted on the only other goal scored by the Stags on the day, her first assist of the season.

“We just worked really hard. Although it was a loss, I think it’s going to make the redemption that much sweeter if we make it to the tournament, and [another] chance to beat them,” said Hatch.

Hatch went on to call the game “a learning experience”.

“We let in two goals that we shouldn’t have, but I just think its good we worked hard the whole way through [the game].”
Fairfield then had a road game on Sunday, a 3-1 defeat at the hand of the Brown University Bears (see This Week in Stag Country for details on the game).

Going forward, the Stags have five of their next six games at home on University Field, and three of their next five against America East opponents. Their next game is a non-conference game at home against Siena on Oct. 3 at 3 p.m.

“We’ve never played with such heart and intensity. I’m blown away at how hard they worked and how passionate they were about the game,” said Kane. “If we can continue on that, then we’re going to be in a very good position going forward.”

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