FIELD HOCKEY

Olivia Bent-Cole scored three goals, two of them in the fourth quarter, and #2 Northwestern beat #1 Maryland 4-2 at Lakeside Field in Evanston on Thursday night. The Wildcats trailed 2-1 at halftime and scored three times in the final 15 minutes to hand the Terrapins their first loss of the season. Maryland had won its first 14 games. Northwestern is now the only unbeaten team in Big Ten play and has won 34 straight regular-season conference games.

For three quarters the game belonged to Maryland’s set pieces. In the 12th minute, on the Terrapins’ first penalty corner, Francisca Eschoyez’s drag flick deflected off freshman Ella Beach’s stick and past goalkeeper Juliana Boon. Bent-Cole answered three minutes later, taking a pass from Aerin Krys on the right side and beating Alyssa Klebasko for a 1-1 tie late in the first quarter. Jordyn Hollamon restored the lead off another corner in the 29th minute, her seventh goal of the season, and Maryland went into halftime ahead 2-1.

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Maryland is still perfect. The #1 Terrapins beat Ohio State 4-0 in College Park on Sunday to move to 14-0 and 5-0 in the Big Ten, and all six Top 10 teams in action won. North Carolina had the hardest day, holding off Syracuse 2-1 on a goal with less than five minutes to play.

Maryland built its lead early before 1,462 fans. Francisca Eschoyez opened the scoring at 5:31, finishing a move from Maci Bradford and Ella Beach, and Babs van Hest added an unassisted goal at 16:52, her eighth of the season. Ohio State stayed within two until Feliz Kuhne struck twice in 81 seconds of the fourth quarter, at 50:25 and 51:46. Goalkeeper Alyssa Klebasko made seven saves to close out the shutout against the Buckeyes, who fell to 4-10 and 0-6 in the conference.

#4 UMass produced the day's biggest margin, an 11-0 win at Bellarmine in Louisville that tied for the second-most goals in a game in program history. The Minutewomen led 4-0 after the first quarter and outshot the Knights 46-0, and seven players scored. Niamh McKenzie had a career-high three goals in a span of 6:11 across the third and fourth quarters, Emily Barrett scored twice, including a penalty stroke, and freshman Amber Fairon added two to reach 14 for the season, a UMass freshman record. UMass is 15-1 and 7-0 in the MAC.

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Harvard kept its grip on the Ivy League on Saturday, scoring three second-half goals to beat Brown 3-1 at Goldberger Family Field in Providence. #5 Harvard improved to 11-1 overall and 5-0 in conference play, and the win was its ninth straight since a Sept. 11 loss to UMass, the only blemish on its record.

Brown made the Crimson work for it. Sophomore goalkeeper Ellie Parker made seven saves in the first half and nine in all, and the teams went to halftime scoreless even though Harvard finished with an 18-4 edge in shots and 12-2 in shots on goal. Emily Bronckers broke through 2:54 into the third quarter, finishing an Evie Smith assist for her third goal of the season. Brown answered almost immediately when Mia Karine Myklebust converted a feed from Juliette Meijaard for her fourth goal of the year. Harvard regained the lead with 31 seconds left in the third quarter on an unassisted goal by Lara Beekhuis, then put the game away 2:47 into the fourth when Sage Piekarski scored off Smith's second assist of the day. Harvard earned nine penalty corners to Brown's four. Brown fell to 4-9 and 1-4 in the Ivy League with its second straight loss.

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Northwestern came to Bloomington five days after its first loss of the season and three days after losing the top spot in the NFHCA poll to Maryland. It left with its answer. The #2 Wildcats beat #11 Indiana 4-1 at Deborah Tobias Field on Friday, ending the Hoosiers' four-game winning streak and their perfect home and Big Ten records, and extending Northwestern's run against Indiana to 11 straight wins.

Ilse Tromp did the early damage from the penalty corner. Her dragflick on Northwestern's first corner, with about two minutes left in the first quarter, was the first goal Indiana had allowed at home all season and her 10th of the year. Mintje Hagen equalized barely a minute into the second quarter, and Indiana led 7-3 in shots at halftime. Tromp restored the lead in the 26th minute with another dragflick, this one set up by a no-look pass from Laura Salamanca. After the break the game belonged to Northwestern. Ashley Sessa, the team's leading scorer, made it 3-1 with a reverse shot off Olivia Bent-Cole's feed in the 33rd minute, and Raquel Hofmeister tipped in a corner in the 42nd after Indiana goalkeeper Sadie Canelli had stopped Sessa and Salamanca. Indiana managed one shot in the second half. Northwestern, 14-1 and 5-0 in the Big Ten, hosts Maryland on Thursday.

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