By By Patrick McHugh, News Staff

Despite generating more shots than their opponents and creating more scoring opportunities, the field hockey team could not stretch its winning streak to five as they were held scoreless in a 4-0 loss to No. 11-ranked University’ of Massachusetts’-Amherst Saturday.
Sophomore forward Carolyn Malloy said the team may not have been mentally ready to play the Minutewomen.
‘We might not have realized from the beginning how competitive a team UMass was going to be,’ Malloy said. ‘The whole team wasn’t aware of that. We just didn’t play the defense that we usually do and they kind of out-hustled us. We didn’t capitalize on opportunities and we just could not get the ball in the net.’
Game statistics indicated Northeastern controlled the play. The Huskies out-shot UMass 17-13 and had 12 penalty corners to the home team’s five.
Head coach Cheryl Murtagh said the inability to convert was frustrating, both on offense and defense.
‘It’s obviously disappointing,’ Murtagh said. ‘We didn’t execute. It really came down to us not executing our offense when we had the opportunities, and our defense breaking down and allowing four goals. Our defense broke down all over the field.’
UMass got its first tally at the 20:59 mark of the first half when junior back Jamie Bourazeris put one past NU freshman Lizzie Priest for a 1-0 lead. Not even a minute later junior Katie Kelly added to make it a 2-0 lead. The Minutewomen would score twice in the second half to put the game out of reach and preserve the shutout. It was the second time Northeastern was shut out this season.
Malloy said the result was unsettling considering the Huskies had already battled defending national champion Maryland closely in a preseason scrimmage Aug. 15 and lost by just a single goal to No. 3 Syracuse Aug. 28.
‘No disrespect to UMass, but we played some very strong teams and come out looking a lot better than we did Saturday,’ Malloy said. ‘It definitely should not have been a 4-0 game. I don’t think the score really shows what actually happened in the game because we had possession a lot and had a lot of opportunities. It was disappointing because I just don’t think that’s how it should have gone. I think it would be a lot different if we played them again.’
The team has a week to regroup before taking the field again, this time against familiar competition. The Huskies open Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) play Friday at Old Dominion at 5 p.m., and then travel to face William & Mary Sunday at 11 a.m. Last season Northeastern was 1-7 in CAA play.
The competition to reach the CAA tournament Nov. 7 and 8 will be even tougher this season due to limited space. This season only the top four teams from the regular season will compete in the conference’s postseason tournament, as opposed to six teams as in past years.
Murtagh said conference play will be even more important this season because of this change in playoff structure.
‘Conference play are the games that you want to be successful in so that you have a shot at a championship,’ she said. ‘Mentally, physically, we’ve got to be ready to play and execute under this kind of situation, knowing it’s conference play, knowing it’s an avenue for us to win a championship and get into the NCAA tournament, which is our team goal.
Malloy said no opportunities can be missed once the CAA schedule begins.
‘We really have to focus. These [conference games] are the ones that we really need to capitalize on.’