PAXTON, Mass.— Sixth seeded Mount Ida College dropped a 5-1 decision to third-seeded Anna Maria College in the first round of the Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) field hockey tournament on Saturday morning.

The Mustangs see their season come to a close with a 4-13 record, but can hang their hat on the fact that they made the first conference tournament appearance in the program's two-year history.

With the win, the AMCATS improve to 13-6 overall and will advance to the GNAC Semifinal round, where they will travel to face No. 2 Saint Joseph's (Maine) on Wednesday, November 4^th.

The Mustangs got in the board in the in the 59^th minute as Alexa Francis (Rochester, Mass.) scored the program's first postseason goal. Sophomore Hayley Napier (Fairhaven, Mass.) had her shot defensive saved by Shelby Looney (Leicester, Mass.). Napier got her own rebound and tipped it over to Francis who tapped it in for the Mustangs' first score.

The AMCATS held a 20-10 advantage in shots and a 16-8 lead in shots-on-goal en route to the victory. Anna Maria took a 1-0 in the second minute of the game and held a 4-0 advantage at halftime. They only needed 1:57 to get on the board, as Kayla Lapierre (Worcester, Mass.) tipped in a shot off of a pass by Kylie Dalbec (Portland, Maine). Dalbec assisted on the team's second goal as well, feeding it in from outside the circle to Lauren Beauregard (Hubbardston, Mass.), who chopped the ball with her stick to redirect the ball high and over the pads of the Mount Ida goaltender.

Beauregard fed Lauren DiPillo (Canton, Mass.) for the AMCATS' third goal at the 21:26 mark, and the AMCATS rounded out the first half with a goal by Denver, assisted by Dalbec, in the 25^th minute.

The AMCATS needed less than two minutes after Francis tallied to reclaim the five-score lead, working the ball around the top of the circle off of a penalty corner, where Lapierre fed it into Denver, who one-touched it in.

Mount Ida netminder Emily McConnell (Lowell, Mass.) made 10 saves in defeat.

Senior Mary Kate Breen (Londonderry, Mass.) earned the win and stopped both shots-on-goal she faced in 35:54 of action. She was relieved by Bryanna Tobin (Deep River, Conn.), who made four saves in 34:06 of play.