NEWTON, Mass. - First year forward Missy Maiewski (Northampton, Mass.) and junior forward Jenna Gagnon (Waterville, Maine) each tallied a pair of goals to lead the Simmons College field hockey team to a 7-0 victory over host Mount Ida College this evening in a Great Northeast Athletic Conference match in Newton, Mass. The Sharks have won four of their last five games to improve to 11-4 overall and 5-1 in the league to earn the GNAC regular season title and the top seed in the GNAC Championship tournament. The Mustangs fall to 4-11 and 1-5.
Simmons dominated the match, owning a 33-4 shot advantage, including 19-2 in the first half, while holding a 23-6 margin on penalty corners.
The Sharks got on the board just over ten minutes into play when Gagnon finished a feed from Rondeau for her third goal of the year, and Simmons took a 3-0 lead into half when sophomore forward Julie Saltamartini (East Hampstead, N.H.) scored on an assist from senior midfielder Amy Cronin (Georgetown, Mass.) and senior back Alexia Malone Oliver (Bristol, R.I.) each scored within 15 seconds, with Oliver's coming on a penalty stroke. For Saltamartini, the marker was her team-high 13th of the season.
Rondeau tipped home a rebound just over three minutes into the second stanza for her eighth goal of the year, extending the Sharks lead to 4-0, and Gagnon got her second goal of the night and fourth of the season, again set up by Rondeau, in the 43rd minute.
Maiewski scored in the 48th and 64th minutes to cap the scoring, with the assist on those goals coming from first year midfielder Analise Giarrusso (Hingham, Masss.) and junior forward Mary Neidhardt (Middlefield, Conn.), respectively.
The Mustangs received two shots on goal from sophomore Lexi Minicucci (Westfield, Mass.) to lead the offense.
Junior goalie Brianna Rastello (Salem, N.H.) made three stops in 51:36 before giving way to classmate Hope McDonald (Hingham, Mass.), who was not challenged in the final 18:24, to combine on the team's ninth shutout of the season. The shutout total is the highest for a Simmons team in over a decade.
The Sharks will be in action again on Tuesday, October 27 when they host New England College in their regular-season home finale at 8:00 p.m. on Winsor Field, while Mount Ida concludes its regular season on October 27 with a 3:30 p.m. home match against Framingham State University.