NEWTON, Mass. – The Mount Ida College field hockey team fell to the Blazers of Elms College on the confines of Alumni Field on Friday night by a final score of 3-2 in overtime. Kristina Kopyscinski (Agawam, Mass.) broke down the middle of the field on a breakaway and beat Mount Ida keeper Brenna Santos (East Falmouth, Mass.) with the deciding goal in the first overtime period. With the victory, Elms improves to 2-9 on the season while Mount Ida drops to 3-6.
After a scoreless first half Mount Ida freshman Lexi Minicucci (Westfield, Mass.) put the Mustangs on the board first when teammate Ashley Tice (South Berwick, Me.) found Minicucci in the middle of the Blazer goal for the early 1-0 advantage.
Just four minutes later, Elms would knot the score at one apiece when Kayla Narey (South Hadley, Mass.) redirected a shot by teammate Emma Morgan (South Kingstown, R.I.) right in front of the Mustang net, beating Santos. The visitors would not go away as they countered again on a very similar goal that tied the game up when Imogen Leonard (Sharon, Mass.) redirected a shot off a Mount Ida defender to give Elms the slight 2-1 edge.
Tice got the Mustangs back into the game when she evened things up at 2-2 in the 63rd minute of play. Regulation ended in a stalemate and saw the two non-conference members head to overtime before Kopyscinski put the game winner in the back of the net just three minutes into the extra session.
Mount Ida held a slight edge in shots, 11-10, while Elms dominated from the penalty corner recording 18 of them to Mount Ida's five.
Mount Ida continues non-conference play when they travel to Regis College next Wednesday with game time set for 5:00. Elms host Wheaton College next Thursday night with that game slated to begin at 7:00 p.m.