The University of Maine traveled to Albany, New York to open up the America East Field Hockey Tournament on Thursday. The #3 seeded Black Bears would get a game winning fourth quarter goal from Kate Richardson, and would slip past #6 The University of California-Davis 4-3 in the quarterfinals at UAlbany Alumni Turf to advance to a rematch with UNH in the semifinal round on Friday.
After a scoreless first quarter, UC-Davis would take their only lead of the day early in the second period. That came off the stick of Katie Kim on a rebound at 1:01, her fifth of the season. Maine tied it 3:30 later on a penalty corner inserted by Eloise Penty, as Olivia Geniti got in front and lifted a rebound off a shot by Penty into the cage over Aggies goaltender Emma Giesting at 4:31. Another corner opportunity gave the Black Bears their first lead on another one inserted by Penty. A shot by Poppy Lambert was stopped by Giesting, but Micaela Grajales got to the rebound and knocked it in at 8:00 for a 2-1 advantage. UC-Davis tied it back before halftime when Jamie Dempsey got her first of the year at 9:25.
The teams traded goals in the third quarter, as Poppy Lambert made it 3-2 Maine on a penalty stroke at 2:27, but a yellow card on Lambert led to UC-Davis getting another equalizer at 6:06 by Zoe Mohrman to send it to the fourth knotted up at 3-3. The game winner by the Black Bears came off yet another penalty corner. Penty inserted to Lambert who fired a shot from the circle that was tipped into the net by Richardson to the right of Giesting with 13:20 remaining. They had a chance to extend to a two goal lead when Zoe Furber had a breakaway with just over seven minutes left, but Giesting came out to challenge and came up with a save. The Aggies pulled the netminder for an extra attacker with just over four minutes to go, but were unable to find the tying tally as Maine advanced to meet #2 UNH in a Friday semifinal. The Black Bears beat the Wildcats 2-0 in Orono last Friday on Senior Day in their only regular season meeting.
Ella Franken and Audrey Lee had an assist each in the loss for UC-Davis. Giesting made 12 saves, as the Aggies season ends with a final record of 4-13. Lambert had one goal and one assist in the Maine victory. Jayde Temby made two saves in playing the first 30 minutes, while Rozarie Mrazova stopped one shot in the second half in the cage. They outshot UC-Davis 25-13 (16-7 on net), and had an 8-6 edge in corner opportunities that they converted into three goals including the game winner by Richardson. The Black Bears (11-8) and Wildcats (9-9) square off at 11 a.m. Friday with the winner advancing to the America East Championship game on Sunday at noon. Top seed and host #14 Albany (15-3) will play either #4 Vermont or #5 UMass-Lowell in the other semifinal on Friday afternoon.
