the Cowl

Issue date: 9/21/06 Section: Sports

Although Melissa McGow didn't score here, the senior captain was named to the Big East Honor Roll this week.

All good things must come to an end. After starting off the season with seven straight victories, its best opening since 1997, the Providence College field hockey team lost at home to the University of Iowa (4-4) on Sunday by a score of 1-0. The team did avenge the loss, however, by winning their Big East opener to retain their No. 16 national ranking.

On Wednesday, the team traveled to Washington, D.C., to take on Georgetown University (2-5) looking to rebound from Sunday's loss. The Friars took an early lead when senior Jessica Weinstein scored her first goal of the season off a pass from freshman Nellie Poulin in the seventh minute. It was Poulin's first career assist and she would not have to wait long for her second. Weinstein and Poulin would repeat their feat later in the half. The teams went into halftime with Providence up 2-0.

The Friars continued their stellar play in the second half. Sophomore Meghan Holden scored the final goal of the day with six minutes to play to put her team up 3-0. Freshman goaltender Rachel Chamberlain and the Friar defense were outstanding, stopping all five Hoya shots on goal on the way to recording their fifth shut out this season. PC outshot Georgetown 12-11, with nine shots on goal.

The game against Georgetown was the Friars' Big East opener. By beating the Hoyas, the team broke their streak of losing their last eight Big East openers. As this is the first year the Hoyas have competed in the Big East, playing against them was somewhat of a new experience for the Friars. Even so, they approached the match up like any other game.

"Our goal is to play in the Big East finals," said Chamberlain. "So now we really have to focus against these teams. We have to be dominant and play like we want to win." Last season, PC did not qualify for the tournament last season, as they finished with a 1-4 conference record.

While the Friars came out strong and scored early in the Georgetown game, the start of the Iowa game did not go as planned.

"We went in very confident, very ready," said Coach Madl. "We just started too chaotic and they jumped on it. We settled down after the first ten minutes."

Unfortunately, the lone goal of the game came within those first 10 minutes. Iowa's Kara Zappone scored unassisted five minutes into the game. The Friars played hard but were unable to catch up. Iowa goaltender Lissa Munley played the whole match and stopped all four Providence shots on goal. Rachel Chamberlain made eight saves for Providence.

Continued...

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