The Hamilton College field hockey team clinched its second straight trip to the NESCAC Championship quarterfinals with a 5-2 win over visiting Colby Saturday. The Continentals (8-6, 4-6 NESCAC) will be the seventh seed in the eight-team field and play a quarterfinal game at second-seeded Middlebury on Saturday, Oct. 31.
Box score
Eva Rosencrans ’17 notched her 10th career multi-goal game, scoring two of Hamilton’s season-high five goals. She put the Continentals ahead for good late in the first period and added a penalty stroke in the second half.
Emma Anderson ’17 picked up a goal and an assist and Mary Kalb ’19 matched a personal high with nine saves.
Rosencrans’ first goal broke a 1-1 tie with 4:40 left in the first half. The play originated from a penalty corner that Anderson sent to the top of the circle where Liz Wagenbach ’18 set up Rosencrans for the goal. Wagenbach’s assist was her first collegiate point and Rosencrans’ goal was the 36th of her career – moving her ahead of Sarah Feyerherm ’86 for second on the program’s all-time list.
Anderson scored as time expired, converting another of Hamilton’s nine penalty corner opportunities. She took the pass from Casey Brown ’16 and put a shot into the top left corner, over Colby’s goaltender.
The Continentals scored the first two goals of the second half to seal the win. Rosencrans converted her second penalty stroke of the year (and the sixth of her career) 10 minutes in and Brown closed out the Hamilton scoring with her 18th career goal. Brown, who has nine goals this fall, had set up the game’s first goal seven minutes into play. Her shot hit the post and the rebound bounced to Merisa Dion ‘17, who put it past goaltender Sarah Evans for her fifth goal this season.
The Continentals’ 1-0 lead lasted less than three minutes, with Misha Strage tying the score with her 10th goal of 2015. Colby (7-7, 2-7) closed out the game’s scoring with 5:07 left in the second half when a penalty stroke was awarded to Meredith Keenan.
Kalb notched nine saves for the second game in a row. Evans turned away four shots.
The win snapped a six-game losing streak to Colby and the Continentals’ five goals were the most they’ve scored against a NESCAC opponent in the five years since Hamilton began playing a full field hockey schedule within the conference.
The Continentals close out the regular season Sunday, hosting Utica in a 1 p.m. non-league game.
