Late Gruet Tally Lifts #14 Field Hockey Over Babson

Late Gruet Tally Lifts #14 Field Hockey Over Babson

DEDHAM, Mass. -- Junior Nathalie Gruet scored the go-ahead goal off a penalty corner with just 6:12 left in regulation, sending 14th-ranked Wellesley College past Babson College 2-1 in New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) field hockey action on Tuesday night at Dedham Field.

With its eighth straight win, Wellesley is now 11-1 overall and 4-0 in the league, while the loss halts Babson's five-game winning streak, dropping them to 7-5 overall and 3-1 in the NEWMAC. The Wellesley victory also snapped a string of 11-straight regular season NEWMAC wins for the Beavers.

Babson opened the scoring just 17:23 into the contest as Julia Pochini (Acton, Mass.) scored her sixth goal of the season, staking the hosts to a 1-0 lead. The Blue wasted little time in equalizing though, taking advantage of its first penalty corner of the night to deadlock the game at 1-1.

Sophomore Hannah Flesch got the play started with an insert to the top of the circle for first-year Nikki Sharkin. Sharkin fed sophomore Anissa Sridhar, who beat Beavers' senior goalkeeper Kayla Florence for her sixth goal of the year at 23:08.

Wellesley, which outshot Babson 12-3 in the second half while earning eight penalty corners, nearly went ahead in the 58th minute but Flesch's shot rang off the post and out of danger. Just over six minutes later, on its final penalty corner of the game, the Blue would break through. Flesch once again found Sharkin on her insert, setting up Gruet's team-leading 10th goal of the season at the 63:48 mark for a 2-1 edge.

Senior goalkeeper Brit Mscisz made five saves for Wellesley, three of which came in the opening five minutes of the contest. Florence made seven of her nine saves in the second half for Babson.

The Blue held a 19-11 advantage in shots and an 11-3 edge in penalty corners on the night.

Babson will return to action when they host Smith on Saturday afternoon at 1:30 p.m. while Wellesley will return home to take on WPI on Saturday at 12 noon.