FIELD HOCKEY: Four Second-Half Goals Land JWU First-Ever GNAC Championship
JWU's Jillian Miele was named Tournament MVP as the second-seeded Wildcats posted a 4-1 victory at top seed Colby-Sawyer in the GNAC title game on Saturday afternoon.
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Courtesy of CSC Athletics Communications
NEW LONDON, N.H. – After a scoreless first half, a flurry of goals in the second half by the No.2 seed Johnson & Wales Wildcats proved to be too much for the top-seeded Chargers to overcome, as Colby-Sawyer fell 4-1 in the Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) Tournament Championship on Saturday afternoon.
In front of a huge home crowd, the Chargers dominated the game's opening quarter, firing six shots, three on net, but could not break past JWU keeper Madison Flaxington.
In the second, JWU began to turn up the pressure on the Chargers, earning seven penalty corners in the frame. Just two of the Wildcats corners led to shots on target, but both were turned away by junior keeper Lauren Wilkinson (Lynn, Mass.), preserving the scoreless tie into the halftime break.
The Wildcats struck first in the 38th minute of the contest when Claire Decker sent in a shot on net that took a friendly bounce and found pay dirt, giving JWU the 1-0 edge.
Just over two minutes later the Wildcats would score again off another penalty corner, when Margaret Johnson tipped in a Jillian Miele shot to give Johnson & Wales the 2-0 advantage.
Calie Sorenson (Sandwich, Mass.) responded for the Chargers with 18 ticks left on the clock in the third quarter off a pass from Aoife Daly(Harwich, Mass.), cutting the deficit in half, 2-1, heading to the fourth.
In the fourth, the high-powered Wildcat offense maintained control and tacked on two more scores, another from Johnson and one from Miele to secure the conference title for JWU.
Wilkinson tallied eight saves on the afternoon for the Chargers while Flaxington notched five for JWU.
Three Chargers earned a spot on the GNAC All-Tournament Team – graduate student Julia Lanctot, first year Courtney Larson and Wilkinson.
Saturday's title game marked the final appearance in uniform for seven Chargers - Chrissy Coffield, Laura Guthrie, Chelsea Perry, Lanctot, Whitney O'Brien, Jess Shatford, and Julia Carr.
The Chargers close the season with an overall record of 16-4, and a 10-1 mark in conference play. The team set a record for wins in a season (16) and reached the conference title game for the first time in program history.
The 2021 campaign was a record-setting year on many fronts for Colby-Sawyer. As a team, the Chargers set program records for points in a season (159), goals in a season (62), assists in a season (35), penalty corners in a season (236), and shutouts in a season (8).
Individually, junior Aoife Daly (Harwich, Mass.) tallied a team-record 18 goals on the year and captain Julia Lanctot finished her career tied for third all-time in points with 62, fourth in goals with 22 and second all-time in assists with 18.
2021 GNAC All-Tournament Team
Nora Newman – Elms
Carissa Ramirez – Elms
Kassidy Collins – St. Joseph's (ME)
Emma Rutledge – St. Joseph's (ME)
Julia Lanctot – Colby-Sawyer
Courtney Larson – Colby-Sawyer
Lauren Wilkinson – Colby-Sawyer
Madison Flaxington – Johnson & Wales
Katie Sloan – Johnson & Wales
Claire Decker – Johnson & Wales
Margaret Johnson – Johnson & Wales
MVP – Jillian Miele – Johnson & Wales