Stags get Senior Day win

Thomas Shea/The Mirror​

On Sunday Nov. 3, the Fairfield Stags field hockey team held their Senior Day and made the seniors proud with a 6-1 victory over the Brown Bears. This was their last regular season game and solidified the Stags with an 11-6 record. A consistent flow of both offense and defense led the girls to victory in this contest.

Seniors Shealyn Testa, Hillary Fitts, Christy Starsinic, and Nikki McLucas were honored before the game in front of the crowd with their families at their sides as they each played in the final game at University Field.

​When talking about her time as a member of the Fairfield field hockey team, Testa said, “I loved it. I met some amazing people and have been coached by great coaches. The girls made the experience.”

​Just five minutes into this contest, Julie DePaeuw ‘17 had two early shot opportunities but misfired on both of them. After that, Emily McCauley ’16 had a shot on goal that went in and appeared to give the Stags an early lead. However, a penalty was called during the shot so the goal was voided and the score remained zero for both teams.

​For the majority of the first half, the Brown Bears focused on defense and did an excellent job of preventing goals. Brown goalkeeper Shannon McSweeney had five saves in the half on 12 shots from Fairfield. However, with 11 minutes left in this half, the Brown defense became vulnerable.

​Testa scored her fifth goal of the season at this point and gave the Stags a 1-0 lead. Just six minutes later, Testa scored again on a goal off a penalty corner. This held the score at 2-0 Stags going into the half.

​When asked about scoring twice on Senior Day, Testa said, “It was nice, but we take it like any other game. There was nothing too special about it. We just had the mindset like it was another game.”

​Just ten minutes into the second half, Fitts found the back of the net for her second goal of the season on a penalty corner. Three minutes later, the lead scorer for Fairfield, Felicitas Heinen ’15, scored and gave the Stags a commanding 4-0 lead. For the next 20 minutes of this contest, defense was steady on both sides as neither team netted a goal.

​In this half, the Stags found themselves playing quite a bit of defense. During this time period, five shots were taken by the Brown Bears and goalkeeper Caitlin Bennett ’17 had two saves. However, towards the conclusion of this game, the shutout came to an end.

​At the 52-minute mark, Brown scored their first goal of the game on a penalty corner by Emily Arciero. With the lead down to just three goals for Fairfield, the girls came right back on the offensive. Three minutes later, Kaitlyn Taddeo ‘16 scored her third goal of the season to put the lead back to four goals at a score of 5-1.

​With nine minutes left in the contest, Brown opted to switch to its second string goalkeeper Cally Moran. With just three minutes left, Fairfield coach Jackie Kane decided to do the same. Oddly enough, she took out goalkeeper Bennett and replaced her with the defender Heinen.

​In a most unusual turn of events, Heinen played up and down the field just as any other player did, but wore a different colored jersey. The crowd showed displeasure with this move and booed Coach Kane for such a decision. Regardless, it was implemented for the remainder of the game.

​With just a minute and 34 seconds left, Heinen even scored on a penalty corner shot for her second goal of the game and her 16th on the season. This put the score at Fairfield 6, Brown 1. This remained the final score and gave the Stags their 10th win of the season, solidifying a regular season record of 11-6.

​When asked how important it was to finish the season with a win, Testa said “really important. We wanted more confidence going into the conference tournament.”

​“We have a great group of girls. Lot of freshmen coming in, stepping up. It’s been a very successful season and we just want to finish it off at the America East Tournament,” said Testa of the team’s victories this season.

​The next step for the Fairfield Stags field hockey team is to conquer the America East Tournament. With a solid 11-6 record, they are poised to clinch one of the top seeds among conference teams and see early success in the tournament.