ALBANY, N.Y. – The #17 UAlbany field hockey team suffered its first home loss of the season in a 2-1 defeat to New Hampshire on Sunday afternoon.
UAlbany (10-5, 4-1 AE) outshot UNH (4-10, 2-3 AE) 20-8 in the game and led at the half, but two Wildcat penalty corner goals, including one in the 69th minute, ended the team's perfect record at home.
“When you play everybody twice, it's always a challenge; we played pretty well at their place and we knew they were going to be hungry and fired up for this game,” said UAlbany head coach Phil Sykes. “It's disappointing, but hopefully we can learn from it a bit and be a little more alert when the next game comes around.”
Paula Heuser scored her 15th goal on the season in the 15th minute, totaling four shots in the game. Maxi Primus got the loss for UAlbany with four saves in goal.
Ashley Mendonca scored each goal for UNH from Katie Audino and Gianna Bensaia. Kelsey Rudert had nine saves in the victory.
In the opening 10:09 of the game, four different UAlbany players fired away at the cage, with two going wide and another two being saved.
In minute 15, Heuser went through the UNH defense and scored on a hopping shot over the goalkeeper to give UAlbany a 1-0 lead.
UAlbany got a long offensive possession starting in the 26th minute as a shot from Jaclyn Hibbs was saved. Kelsey Briddell shot twice, with each being stopped, and the subsequent penalty corner shot was wide.
Primus dove and stopped a shot from Bensaia in the waning minutes of the half as UAlbany led 1-0 at the break.
UNH converted on its first penalty corner in the second half in the 38th minute from Audino to Bensaia to Mendonca for the score to tie the game at 1-1.
UAlbany kept picking up penalty corners, with a shot from Dana Bozek going high and another from Heuser being saved. Briddell added two shots in normal play, with each being saved by Rudert.
Into the 69th minute, Mendonca converted another UNH penalty corner to put the visitors ahead 2-1.
Molly Mariano had the last chance for UAlbany, missing wide on the cage. UAlbany fell to UNH 2-1.
UAlbany heads north for its next two games, starting at Maine on Friday, October 21st at 3 p.m.
