NEWTON, Mass. - The Mount Ida College field hockey team won for the second time in three days and now improve their overall record to 2-2 on the young season by defeating local Boston foe Wheelock College by a final score of 3-1 on Thursday evening on the confines of Alumni Field.
With the setback, Wheelock drops to 1-3 on the year while neither team has played a conference game to date.
The Mustangs got on the board just eight minutes into the contest when freshman midfielder Melissa McNamara (Wilmington, Mass.) took a shot off a well earned penalty corner while slotting it past the outstretched Wheelock netminder, Jenna O'Leary (Lakeville, Mass.) for the early 1-0 advantage.
A little over four minutes later Eleanor Garvey (Westminster, Md.) tallied her second goal in as many games after teammate Sarah Hemstock passed a ball from outside the post to Garvey's stick for the 2-0 cushion in favor of the hosts.
The remainder of the opening half was controlled by Mount Ida as they had several opportunities to pad their lead but were unsuccessful and took the 2-0 lead into the break.
Seconds into the the second half of play, Hemstock struck again but this time tallying a goal of her own off a pass from forward Lindsey Hildreth (Westbrook, Me.) who penetrated the Wildcat defense and found Hemstock for the 3-0 lead.
At the 64:56 mark, Wheelock's Katie Frade (Dartmouth, Mass.) got the visitors on the board when she found the back of the net at the near post as she redeflected a shot from Courtney Scherer (Pawcatuck, Conn.) from the top of the crease.
No more than a minute later, the Wildcats were knocking on the door again and nearly missed another marker but were unable to find the back of the net, while taking the 3-1 non-conference loss to the Mustangs.
Grace Ryan (Livermore Falls, Me.) won her second game of the season while O'Leary suffered her third loss of the season for Wheelock.
Mount Ida held the slight edge in shots, 18-15, while Wheelock earned twelve penalty corners to Mount Ida's nine.
Mount Ida will be back in action on Saturday, September 10th when they host Johnson and Wales in their first Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) contest of the season beginning at 12:00 PM. Wheelock will take the weekend off and see the field again next Tuesday when they visit Simmons for a 7:00 PM game time.