HAVERFORD, Pa. – The Haverford College field hockey team tallied a 2-1 victory over visiting Misericordia on Wednesday night, posting a dominating 25-3 shot advantage and 16-2 corner advantage in the contest. Haverford used a pair of goals from Mason McNulty, who now has five on the season, to take victory. Haverford improves to 4-3 on the season while Misericordia falls to 1-7 on the 2016 campaign.
Haverford struck first in the 19th minute as Rachel Gordon sent in a cross that went the length of the circle to a waiting McNulty, who was able to deflect the pass in for the opening strike of the contest and a 1-0 lead to the Fords. In the 23rd minute, Misericordia got on the scoreboard with a penalty stroke goal after a Cougar was tripped up in the circle with just one Ford to beat. Colby Eldridge took the stroke for the visitors and converted to equalize the score at 1-1.
A flurry of action in front of the Misericordia cage allowed Casey Wakai to register a pair of shots on goal, and Natalie Leslie also fired in a shot off a penalty corner in the last seconds of the first half, but Haverford settled for the 1-1 halftime scoreline despite a 12-1 overall advantage in shots and a 4-0 tally in corners.
The Fords kept up the pressure in the second half with 12 penalty corners in the period to just two for the Cougars. The Fords saw three consecutive attempts shot attempts off corners go fruitless until the 48th minute when McNulty scored from the open field, taking a pass from Alissa Valentine and converting her second of the evening.
The Fords were not tested with a shot attempt from that point forward, but saw seven of their own shots either stopped or miss their target. Misericordia had a great scoring chance in the Haverford end in the waning minutes of competition, but a stout Fords' back line was able to squash thoughts of a late equalizer.
For Haverford, McNulty attempted a career-best eight shots while Leslie had seven shots on goal, also a career high. Eldridge fired a pair for the Cougars, including the penalty stroke while Melanie Fry had the only other attempt for the visitors. Jenn Gazdick had a valiant effort on goal, saving 11 shots in a losing effort. Danielle Rette made one save in recording the win for the Fords.
Haverford moves to 5-0 all-time against Misericordia. The field hockey team will return to action with another home game on Swan Field against No. 16 Rowan this Saturday, the final non-conference matchup of the season. The game is slated to begin at noon.