Box Score

POUGHKEEPSIE, NY (September 24, 2014) – The Vassar College field hockey scored two first-half goals and held on late to earn a hard fought 2-1 victory over Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in the Liberty League opener for the Brewers Wednesday.

On a cool evening, Vassar College upped its program-best start to a season to 8-1, and is now 6-0 at home in a season for the first-time ever. The Brewers six-game win streak is among the top 10 longest current streaks in the country among Division III schools.

The Brewers (8-1, 1-0 Liberty League) started the game having to defend, as RPI got the game's first two shot attempts on cage, but junior Amreen Bhasin (Cresskill, NJ/Riverdale) stood tall for VC. Later in the period, the Brewers opened the game's scoring at the 19:40 mark of the contest as junior Haley Merritt (Northport, NY/Northport) tipped in a penalty corner shot by Emma Bracken (Alexandria, VA/T.C. Williams) for the goal.

The tally was Merritt's second of the season, and the helper for Bracken marked her fourth of the campaign. After the goal, the Engineers (1-5, 0-2 Liberty) made a push, but Bhasin and her defense fended off the attack to keep the game 1-0 in favor of the hosts. During the sequence, RPI's Chloe Hutchinson had a great chance off a penalty corner, but her shot whipped wide of the left post.

Late in the first half, Vassar College chalked up a huge insurance goal thanks to a nice play front of the net. Freshman Storm Sideleau (Hopkinton, NH/Kimball Union Academy) corralled a pass off a deflection and dished across to sophomore Hayley Beach (Latham, NY/Shaker) as Engineer keeper Hannah Clough charged her way. Beach slotted the pass home into the empty cage for her fifth goal of the season.

At the intermission, Vassar had a slight 8-7 lead in the shot department, and also had five penalty corners to the three of RPI. Right after the break, the Engineers got back into the game thanks to a penalty stroke by Celia D'Agostino, who slammed the attempt into the top left corner to cut the VC lead in half.

The play was furious down the stretch, and Clough kept her team in it in the second half with five saves. Bhasin made two big stops as well on back-to-back attempts minutes after the goal, and her squad in the end was able to hold on for the conference victory.

VC won the final shot battle by a slim 15-13 margin, earning nine penalty corners to the six for the Engineers. Clough stopped a game-high seven shots in net for the visitors Wednesday, and Bhasin made a season-high six saves for Vassar.

The Brewers are off for six days before returning to non-conference play at home against the Hawks of Hartwick College at 4 p.m. Tuesday, September 30 on Weinberg Field.