SOUTH HADLEY, Ma. – The Clark field hockey team opened its New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference slate with a trip to Western Mass to face the Mount Holyoke Lyons. Clark improved to 6-2 on the year with a 3-1 victory over Mount Holyoke in their first conference game. Clark hasn't beaten the Lyons since their 2012 season, when they beat them on their home turf in Worcester, 3-2.

 HIGHLIGHTS

-Clark wasted little time in pulling ahead in the contest when Julia D'Antonio (Ramsey, N.J.) converted on a beautiful pass from Chase Collier (Lisbon, Maine) with only four minutes and forty seconds expired in the first quarter. This would be D'Antonio's first goal for the season.

-The Cougars and the Lyons traded scoring opportunities for the remainder of the half, but the score remained 1-0 as time ticked down.

-Just like they did in the first half, Clark wasted no time in getting their second goal of the match with 10:04 still left to play in the third quarter. Collier again sent a pass into the middle circle, and it found the waiting stick of freshman forward, Abigail Cravinho (Bellow Falls, Vt.)—her fifth goal of the season.

-In the beginning of the fourth quarter, the Lyons tried to mount a comeback when Leah Pendl-Robinson (Bradford, Conn.) scored off an assist with only 27 seconds gone in the quarter.

-Clark would respond with their final goal of the game coming off a penalty corner. With less than nine minutes remaining, Emma Boland (Redding, Conn) sent a ball to Carden Maloney (Worcester, Mass) who rocketed a shot towards cage, which was then tipped in off the waiting stick of Boland to make it 3-1.

INSIDE THE BOX SCORE

-The Lyons led the Cougars by a narrow margin in shots and corners.

-Carden Maloney picked up an assist in this game, which brings her total number of points scored this week to seven.

-In Cage for the Cougars, Grace Sawyer (Windham, Maine) picked up another win.

 UP NEXT

Clark travels to Umass-Dartmouth this Tuesday for a 7PM non-conference tilt.