UMass-Lowell 3, Bentley 2: Falcons stumble in NCAA semis

The Bentley University field hockey team's 16-game winning streak and NCAA Division II national championship hopes came to an end Friday night when UMass-Lowell jumped on top early and went on to a 3-2 win over the Falcons in the national semifinals at the Bloomsburg University Sports Center.

UMass-Lowell advanced to the national championship game for the third time in four years, but lost a 6-2 decision to host and two-time defending champ Bloomsburg yesterday afternoon. The Huskies rallied in the earlier semifinal to top Shippensburg University in OT, 3-2.

Sophomore Sammy Macy led the River Hawk attack, scoring in each half. She staked her club to the lead at 13:25 of the first half and made it a 3-1 contest in the fifth minute of the second half.

Junior All-America goalie Alyssa Sliney and the rest of the Bentley defense had blanked the high-scoring River Hawk offense in two previous meetings, including a 1-0 overtime win two weeks ago in the Northeast-10 Conference championship.

However, UMass-Lowell took it to the Falcons from the start in this one, with a dozen penalty corners in the opening half alone, including five in the first 4:06. Macy's first came on the River Hawks' seventh corner of the game, and sophomore Katie Enaire converted another less than six minutes later to make it 2-0 before the game was 20 minutes old.

Despite being dominated, Bentley was down by just one at the break, thanks to an unassisted goal from junior Courtney Bartlett with 5:05 left in the first.

Macy restored the two-goal differential 4:46 into the second, with her 28th of the season set up by sophomore Jamie Hadley.

Bartlett tallied her second of the game and 13th of the season with about 22 minutes left, off an assist from junior Janna Panzone, to make it 3-2, but that proved to be the Falcons' final score of the 2008 season. UMass-Lowell allowed only one more shot and one corner the rest of the way.

UMass-Lowell finished with a 13-6 advantage in shots and had 16 penalty corners, to the Falcons' seven.

Bentley loses three seniors from this year's club, but the future looks bright for 2009 with Sliney and the top five scorers amongst the returnees.