After winning their semifinal games on Friday, Framingham State and Worcester State are set to meet in the 2023 MASCAC Field Hockey Championship game for the title of inaugural tournament champion.

#3 Framingham State 2, #2 Westfield State 1 2 OT   Box Score

WESTFIELD, Mass. – Ashley Malmquist (Braintree, Mass.) scored the game winning goal in the second overtime period to lift #3 Framingham State to 2-1 win over #2 Westfield State  in the Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference field hockey semifinals at Alumni Field on Friday afternoon.

With the win, Framingham State advances to Sunday's championship game, where they would either travel to top seed Worcester State or host #4 Salem State, depending on the outcome of today's later second semifinal round game.

Malmquist redirected a shot from Isabella Kondi (Canaan, NH/Mascoma) off of a penalty corner in the second 7 v 7 golden goal overtime.

Malmquist was the inserter on the play from the left side of the goal.  Her pass went to Angelina Serra (N. Chelmsford, Mass./Chelmsford) at the top of the scoring circle, and Serra slid a pass left to Kondi, who stepped into a shot from the right side about 15 yards out.   Kondi's shot slipped through all the traffic and Malmquist scored the winner at the left post.

Westfield's season comes to an end with a 12-8 overall record. The Owls matched the school record for wins this season.   Framingham improves to 11-9 overall.

Westfield scored the first goal of the match in the 21^st minute, as Shannon Gover (Norwood, Mass.) fed a long pass into the circle that was gatherered by Taylor Creech (Kennebunk, Maine).  Creech wheeled and fired a right handed shot past Rams netminder Kaitlyn Tello (Nashua, NH/South) for a 1-0 lead.

Framingham leveled the game less than four minutes later, as the Rams' Kaitlin Loughlin (Ashland, Mass.) scored on a rebound of a shot after a penalty corner.  The Rams had two shots in rapid succession, which were saved by Owls senior goalkeeper Paige Reisman before the third shot finally beat her.

The two teams dueled through a scoreless second half.

Westfield seemed to have the better of the attacking play, and had several shots go just wide in regulation and one early in the first overtime period.

Framingham generated the game winning play as Kondi attacked down the middle of the field off the initial back pass, using another attacking player as a shield before Kondi carried the ball into the circle and the penalty corner was called.

Westfield had a 20-9 edge in total shots, and a 7-3 margin in penalty corners.   

Tello finished with five saves for Framingham, including a pair in the first overtime period.  Reisman finished with two saves for the Owls.

#1 Worcester State 4, #4 Salem State 1   Box Score

Worcester, MA- The #1 seed Lancers  and #4 seed Vikings looked to continue their history-making seasons on Friday night on John F. Coughlin Field. Worcester State has claimed the previous two meetings between the teams this season, the first a 3-2 overtime victory in Salem, and the most recent, this past Monday, saw them claim the 3-0 victory on Coughlin.

FINAL:

LANCERS 4

VIKINGS 1

RECAP:

The Lancers opened the action early in the game with a goal by junior Natalya Morin (Barre, MA) off a hard direct attempt by senior Grace Adams (Leominster, MA)  that bobbled around the defensive sticks before finding Morin who tucked the pass around first-year Izzy Mosley (Middleborough, MA) to put Worcester ahead 1-0.

Salem attempted to tie the game with five minutes left in the first quarter off a perfectly executed reverse chip by senior Melanie Mason (Beverly, MA) at the top of the circle. The shot soared towards the cage but clinked off the top crossbar back into play where the Lancer defense was able to clear the ball. A quick counterattack saw a corner called in the final minute of the quarter but the Viking defense held strong to prevent any threat and keep the score at 1-0. 

The second quarter saw a return to back-and-forth play for the opening five minutes of action, but a corner called in the 21' minute had Worcester set up on the circle. A speedy smooth insert by junior Madison Avilla (Westport, MA) met the stick stop of first-year Megan Goodwin (Keene, NH) who placed a perfect ball for senior Gace Adams (Leominster, MA) to drive through, sending the ball flying past Mosley's right boot to put Worcester up 2-0. The Lancers attempted goal number three two minutes later, when Avilla took a page from Mason, attempting a reverse chip to the left post, but Mosley made a beautiful leaping save to keep Worcester ahead by only two. 

With two minutes left in the quarter, the Vikings broke down the Lancer's attack which led  first-year Allison Thomas (Carver, MA) to go streaking down the field, but the Lancers' defense managed to neutralize the danger. Worcester would extend the lead to three, in the final 30 seconds off another perfectly executed corner that saw Avilla feed the ball directly to Adams this time, for a quick release to see Worcester take a 3-0 lead into the half.

The third quarter was all Salem State with a quick shot by senior Mikayla Mason (Beverly, MA) off a Viking corner, but the Lancers defense cleared the attempt wide. The threats did not stop there as Salem recorded numerous corners going on a full offensive attack. The Vikings nearly had their first goal of the game when graduate student Ashley Yebba (Everett, MA) attempted to lift the ball off a collected rebound from a release from Mason. Senior Sam Gastonguay (Ashburnham, MA) was solid in the cage blocking up the Vikings attacks across the cage width. 

During the fourth quarter,  Salem's Thomas found the back of the net to put an end to the Vikings scoring drought. After many chances from Salem State's attack, Thomas was able to snag the ball off a rebound from Gastonguay's boot to grab their first goal of the game..

The Lancers and Vikings both showed effort throughout all four quarters as each team had a member sent off for two minutes within seconds of each other to play a 10-10 stretch.

Adams scored her third goal of the night, again off of a Lancer corner, giving her a hat-trick in the game off a penalty corner shot attempt from senior Emma Thomson (Agawam, MA) with three minutes remaining in the game to lock up the game and championship bid for the Lancers.   

With the win, the Lancers advance to the conference championship game, as the Salem St. Vikings end their season with a final regular season record of (7-10, 4-6 MASCAC).

The MASCAC Championship game will be played at John F. Coughlin Memorial Field on Sunday, November 5th against Framingham St. at 12:00 PM.

Releases courtesy of Westfield State and Worcester State Sports Information