Speedy Providence snaps Maine’s 4-game win streak

ORONO – The University of Maine’s field hockey team entered Sunday afternoon’s game against Providence College with a four-game winning streak in which they conceded just three goals.

But the speedy Friars scored three first-half goals and were able to withstand a late rally to beat the Black Bears 3-2 at Morse Field.

Freshman midfielder Julie Ruggieri broke a 1-1 tie 19:13 into the game and made it 3-1 11:18 later as the Friars improved to 6-3.

Maine fell to 4-5.

Meghan Holden had opened the scoring for Providence 3:40 into the game.

Courtney Veinotte equalized just 1:09 later.

Maine’s Nicole Emery scored with 6:20 left in regulation as she deposited an Amy Zdrojesky rebound into the short- side corner.

The Bears pressed for the tying goal but couldn’t convert.

“I don’t think we put two halves together,” said Maine first-year coach Josette Babineau. “But I definitely think that we put the second half together. I was really happy with how we played at the end. I just think we were a little bit unfortunate.”

“The first half was kind of crazy for us,” added Maine senior back and co-captain Kristen Healy. “We played URI [Saturday] and didn’t have a lot of time to plan for this game. [Providence] is very skilled and very quick and they caught us off-guard. We weren’t used to their speed. It threw us off a little bit and then we adjusted. We really picked it up at the end.”

Maine beat Rhode Island 1-0 in overtime Saturday.

Holden opened the scoring by taking a penalty corner and then continuing on to the near post where she steered Michalagh Stoddard’s diagonal pass into the empty near-side corner.

Veinotte tied it when she received a pass from Brooke Anderson, cut left to right across the top of the circle and cleanly beat PC goalie Rachel Chamberlain with a shot inside the far post.

Ruggieri broke the tie when Adrienne Marois’ shot deflected to her as she stood to the left of screened Maine goalie Rebecca Giroux.

“I took it in and shot it in the right hand corner [to the goalie’s left],” said Ruggieri.

“They did a great job posting someone in front of me so I couldn’t see anything,” said Giroux. “We needed to force them out wide which we did in the second half.”

Ruggieri’s second of the game and fifth of the season was set in motion by the omnipresent Abby Maguire, who intercepted an errant Bear hit.

“I carried it into open space in the middle of the field and released it to the middle,” said Maguire.

“I received it at the top of the [attacking] circle. I hit it and did a pull and then I did a reverse and shot it back to the far post,” said Ruggieri.

After a wild first half which featured end-to-end action and 28 shots at goal (19 by Providence), both teams did a much more thorough job defensively in the second half.

There were just 15 shots at goal in the final 35 minutes.

Chamberlain finished with four saves on 16 shots and Giroux made 10 stops on 27 shots.

PC, coached by former Maine assistant Diane Madl, had 11 penalty corners to Maine’s 9.

In Saturday’s game, Maine’s Zdrojesky scored on a pass from Kim MacDonald at 70:34 in overtime. Maygan Cassarino stopped two of seven shots for Maine.

M.J. Britt stopped seven of 11 shots for 6-3 Rhode Island.