The historic season for the #21 Maine Black Bears Field Hockey team came to a heartbreaking end on Wednesday afternoon, as Noor Breedijk scored with 6:09 left in the first overtime to lead the #25 Miami of Ohio Redhawks to a 3-2 win in a first round NCAA Tournament game at the Miami FH Complex in Oxford, Ohio.
Maine controlled alot of the action for the first two and half quarters of play. Poppy Lambert got the scoring started on a sizzling slapshot off a penalty corner 10:50 into the first quarter for a 1-0 Black Bears lead. That lead held until Lambert did it once again, on almost the same exact play and off a corner 6:34 into the third to make it 2-0. It was the 17th goal of the season for the sophomore from New Zealand. Down two, the hosts of Miami-Ohio (12-10) turned up the pressure. Lexie Nugent scored off a corner 1:56 after the second Lambert goal to slice the margin in half. The Redhawks tied it off another corner 2:02 later when Claudia Negrete Garcia made it 2-2, firing a hard shot past goaltender Mia Borley after an initial shot was blocked. Each team had a corner in the fourth quarter, but Borley made a kick save off a Miami-Ohio chance and Maine couldn’t get off a shot on their corner as the game went to overtime. The Bears had a great corner opportunity 2:28 into the extra session. A shot by Lambert from the top of the circle was kicked out by goalie Isabelle Perese. The ball came to Chloe Walton in front, who spun, and got a shot off that was stopped and Lambert was then turned away on the rebound of the Walton shot by Perese. The Redhawks then would win it just 39 seconds later. A long pass to a streaking forward was deflected in on Borley near the top of the circle, who had to make the save but was out of position. The ball came to Breedijk who turned and fired it into the empty cage for her first of the season to help Miami-Ohio advance.
Borley made two saves in net for Maine in the loss, while Brittany Smith and Madisyn Hartley both had two assists on the day. Perese would make three stops in the cage for Miami-Ohio, with Morgan Sturm and Luli Rosso adding one assist each. The Black Bears outshot the Redhawks 7-5 and had an 8-6 edge on penalty corners. Maine ends the season with a record of 15-7. Miami-Ohio will play #2 Michigan in the second round.
