SHEA'S THREE GOALS SPARKS FIELD HOCKEY TO 4-0 WIN AT DARTMOUTH

Wednesday, October 7

3 pm

University of New Hampshire

Dartmouth

SHEA'S THREE GOALS SPARKS FIELD HOCKEY TO 4-0 WIN AT DARTMOUTH

10/7/2009 12:00:00 AM | Field Hockey

Box Score

MEG SHEA

HANOVER, N.H. – Meg Shea (Melrose, Mass.) matched her career highs of three goals and six points to propel the University of New Hampshire field hockey team to Wednesday afternoon's 4-0 non-conference victory against intrastate rival Dartmouth College at Chase Field.

UNH improved to 6-5 while the host Big Green fell to 5-5.

Shea, who entered this week's action ranked seventh in the nation in goals per game as well as 11th in points per game, quickly gave the Wildcats a 2-0 lead with goals 50 seconds apart. She opened the scoring with an unassisted tally off a rebound at 10:58, then struck again – this time with the assistance of Whitney Frates (Woodstock, Vt.) – at 11:48.

New Hampshire took that two-goal advantage, as well as a 12-5 edge in shots, into halftime.

Frates, off a feed from Kate Collins Smyth (Parteen, County Clare/Ireland) on a penalty corner, extended the lead to 3-0 at 40:23. Shea completed the scoring with another unassisted goal off her own rebound at 47:56.

UNH goalkeeper Katherine Nagengast (Westborough, Mass.) was credited with five saves and DC counterpart Meagan Vakiener stopped nine shots.

The Wildcats finished with a 22-9 shot advantage and generated a 6-3 edge in corners.

Shea extended her point-scoring streak to 11 games with her three-goal effort. She also climbed to No. 5 on UNH's career goals leaderboard (35) and to No. 9 on the program's all-time points list (79).

Frates has scored a goal in three consecutive games and also tallied an assist each of the last two games.

"We played a great game and controlled play," 19th-year head coach Robin Balducci said. "They have a very good midfielder, but we did a good job of holding her in check.

"Getting the shutout was important for our team goal today," she added.

New Hampshire returns to action with two games this weekend. The Wildcats resume America East league play Oct. 10 (1 p.m.) at the University of Vermont, then battle the University of Michigan at Harvard University on Oct. 11 (1 p.m.).