BURLINGTON, Vt. – The Vermont field hockey team earned its first-ever win over Stanford Sunday with a 1-0 overtime win at Moulton Winder Field Sunday.
Sophia Drees scored the games' only tally 4:31 into the extra session. The overtime win was UVM's sixth straight, setting a new program record for consecutive wins. It was the Catamounts' annual Rally Against Cancer Game presented by Mascoma Bank. With the win Vermont improves to 6-1 this season while the Cardinal fell to 2-5.
RELATED LINKS
Box Score (.pdf)
CatamounTV Highlights
COACH'S QUOTE
"It was a hard-fought defensive battle today and I love the way our players leaned it and competed," head coach
Kate Pfeifer said. "Sierra and the back line really earned this shutout with some incredible plays. It feels great to be 2-0 in the league."
HOW IT HAPPENED
- A scoreless first half was highlighted by a huge penalty stroke save by Sierra Espeland. 3:04 into the second quarter Espeland robbed Stanford's Cara Sambeth with a blocker stop.
- With 8:50 to play in the third quarter Espeland made another great save to keep things scoreless. Fenella Scutt was open in front of the net and fired a hard-low shot that Espeland padded aside.
- In the final 63 seconds of regulation the Cardinal had three penalty corner opportunities. Espeland made two saves to take the game to the extra session.
- Four minutes into the extra session Vermont earned a penalty corner. On its initial opportunity Stanford goalkeeper Kendall Dowd stopped a shot from Maddie Moran but UVM earned another chance.
- On the game-winning sequence Alina Gerke took the settled corner and fed it quickly over to her left where Drees gathered the ball and fired a hard-low shot past Dowd for her sixth career game-winning goal and third of this season.
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
- With this afternoon's win Vermont is 2-0 to start conference play for the second time under Head Coach Kate Pfeifer. UVM was 2-0 in 2018 on its way to a 4-4 league record and third-place finish in the East Division. The four conference wins in 2018 was a program record.
- Following the opening weekend of conference play the Catamounts are tied for first place with UMass Lowell at 2-0. The River Hawks also swept their weekend series with UC Davis and Stanford this weekend.
- With today's win, Vermont Mutual Insurance Group will donate $100 to COTS, the Committee on Temporary Shelter, as part of the Cats Win, Community Wins initiative. Since the campaigns inauguration in 2017, Vermont Mutual Insurance Group has donated over $72,000 to local non-profits
UP NEXT
The Catamounts return to action on Friday afternoon as they continue America East with their first-ever conference matchup against Bryant. It is Vermont's Rally Around Mental Health game. The opening draw is set for 2 p.m. and the action will be broadcast live on AmericaEast.TV with Brian McLaughlin on the call.
