Box Score Worcester, Mass. – With a bevy of offensive options all firing on full blast, Clark University head coach Linda Wage picked up her 300th career victory with a resounding 9-1 win over Nichols College in non-league field hockey action on Tuesday evening.
Wage who has stalked the Cougar sidelines for what is now her 31st season, has already won more than 400 games in the dugout for the Clark softball team.
Some of her former student-athletes have gone on to become doctors, teachers and some, like her current assistants, Kaitlin Kelley '07 and Meghan Lennon '12, are following in her footsteps.
In tonight's milestone win, however, it was the current edition of student-athletes who put on a show. Freshman Olivia Barksdale (Fort Washington, Md.) registered a hat trick and junior Lauren Mackey (Dublin, N.H.) finished with two goals and two assists as the Cougars controlled the contest from start to finish.
Barksdale wasted little time getting the Scarlet and White on the board as she took a feed from Colleen Durkin (Rye, N.H.) on a penalty corner and rattled the back of the cage just 57 seconds into the contest.
Haley Mahan (Bedford, N.H.) doubled the Clark lead when she slammed home her second marker of the year in the 20th minute.
Nichols responded with their only strike of the contest when Victoria Utter fought for a loose ball out in front of the cage and jammed the ball home at 24:23.
The Cougars answered back with one of the best goals of the year. Barksdale pushed the ball up the left flank and cut in, sending a pass to Mackey, who flicked the ball over to Megan Tighe (Simsbury, Conn.), who then batted it out of the air over the goalkeeper's shoulder and into the back of the cage.
Tighe then returned the favor to Mackey as she fed her on the doorstep for Mackey's fourth score of the season before the half ended.
Mackey played playmaker again, this time with Barksdale as the Cougar advantage ballooned to 5-1 less than two minutes into the second half.
A few moments later, the Clark offensive attack continued, as Olivia Cotton (Northampton, Mass.) connected with Mackey for a 6-1 lead.
Barksdale completed her first career hat trick when she notched an unassisted score with a little more than 20 minutes left to play and then Cotton and Rai Bittues (Center Ossipee, N.H.) closed out the scoring on the historic night.
After not getting a shot off in the 2-0 loss to Keene State last Tuesday, Clark has outshot its last two opponents 45-13 and outscored them 17-3.
The Cougars are back in action on Saturday when they visit Western New England, while the Bison host MIT on Thursday.
