Box Score

NORTH ANDOVER, Mass. - The No. 8 nationally ranked Southern Connecticut State University field hockey team received goals from Whitney Martin (Harwinton, Conn.) and Sara Winterbottom (Burlington, Conn.) in the opening 3:13 and never looked back en route to a 5-1 win at Merrimack on Saturday afternoon. With the victory, the Owls locked up the No. 3 spot in the Northeast-10 Conference Tournament and will host No. 6 seeded Franklin Pierce on Wednesday at 3 p.m.

The Owls finish the regular season with a mark of 12-8 and 12-6 in Northeast-10 play. Merrimack moved to 5-14, 5-13 in league action with the loss.

Martin opened the scoring just 1:23 into the game when she scored off an assist from Winterbottom. Then, just 1:50 later, Winterbottom got into the act with an unassisted goal.

Merrimack cut the lead in half on a goal that came 8:02 later, but the Owls scored two more times before halftime to secure a hold on the outcome.

Winterbottom recorded her second goal of the day with 11:06 left in the opening half. Martin notched an assist on that goal.

Jennifer Sousa (Hartford, Conn.) then found the back of the net with 4:52 remaining in the stanza off a feed from Ann Berry (Belfast, Maine).

The only scoring the second half came on a goal from Molly Daniels (Canton, Conn.). Berry also assisted on that marker.

Lauren Zarrella (Morris, Conn.) finished with two saves in goal for the Owls.