Field hockey season ends for Minutewomen
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AMHERST - With three minutes, 41 seconds left in the first sudden-death overtime, Sarah Blythe-Wood of Richmond was the last person the University of Massachusetts field hockey team wanted to see sprinting down the left sideline with the ball.
The Spider senior, the Atlantic 10 offensive player of the year, stepped around Minutewoman defender Nikki Panciocco, forcing UMass goalie Alesha Widdall to come out of the net. Before Widdall could set herself, Blythe-Wood fired the ball hard and low past the goalie to give No. 1-seeded Richmond a 2-1 overtime win over the No. 4 Minutewomen (12-9) in the semifinals of the Atlantic 10 Tournament at Garber Field.
"We certainly had our chances," UMass coach Justine Sowry said. "Unfortunately Richmond took the opportunity when it counted."
Widdall finished with eight saves, helping to counteract the Spiders' advantage in shots (21-6) and penalty corners (8-6).
"I think Alesha had a great game today," Sowry said. "Unfortunately one got by her at the end. She made some quality, quality saves."
Richmond (12-8) advanced to the championship game against No. 3 Temple (9-11) at 3 p.m. Saturday at Garber Field. The Owls upset No. 2 Saint Joseph's 3-0 in the second semifinal Friday.
UMass took a 1-0 lead 7:33 into the game on a penalty corner. Panciocco slipped the ball to Kim Young who fired it toward the net. Cher King, who initially inserted on the corner, came to the net and redirected the ball past Spiders goalie Jacki Raithel (three saves).
Richmond carried the play with renewed urgency early in the second half, forcing a quick corner with just over four minutes played. Blythe-Wood shot from just inside the circle and Dani Pycroft redirected it over Alesha Widdall, who was prone in front of the net, at 39:21 to tie the game at 1-1.
The Spiders had a chance to take the lead with just over 27 minutes left as they got three shots in traffic on Widdall, but the sophomore goalie stopped each attempt to keep the game tied.
Richmond drew a penalty corner with 2:50 left in regulation and Blythe-Wood got a clear shot, but Widdall made a sprawling save to force overtime.
The game was the final career appearance for King. She was one of three seniors on the Minutewoman roster, but forward Jill Powers was sidelined with an injury and backup goalie Sarah Williams did not play.
Sowry praised King's contribution to the program, who missed several games this season with a leg injury.
"Cher is phenomenal," Sowry said.
"I saw her X-ray on her knee and her kneecap is basically in two pieces so for her to be playing on that shows her incredible amount of strength.
"She will be sorely missed," Sowry added. "She's been a huge par of the resurgence of this program."
With most of her roster returning, Sowry is optimistic going forward. "We will learn a lot of lessons from this game," Sowry said. "We had four or five freshmen playing. Hopefully we will gain a lot from it. The future looks bright for our team."
Junior captain Katie Kelly agreed.
"This was definitely a young team," Kelly said. "We have a lot of starters returning. Hopefully that will give us momentum heading into next season."
Matt Vautour can be reached at mvautour@gazettenet.com. Follow UMass coverage on Twitter at twitter.com/GazetteUMass. Get UMass coverage delivered in your Facebook news feed at http://www.facebook.com/GazetteUMassCoverage.
