DUDLEY, Mass. (9/11/2026) – The Nichols College field hockey program is off to their best start to a season in four years, after defeating the University of Hartford, 4-2 in their first Conference of New England test of the campaign at Michael J. Vendetti Field on Friday.
The Bison improve to 3-1 (1-0 CNE) with the win, while the Hawks drop to 1-3 (0-1 CNE) with the loss.
Nichols opened the scoring 10:40 into the contest when sophomore
Evelyn Linehan converted a feed from
Sofia Calabro to give the Bison an early 1-0 advantage. Hartford answered early in the second quarter, with Ashley Taylor finding the back of the cage at 19:09 to even the score.
The Bison quickly regained the lead, as
Emma Bianculli scored at 22:02 off an assist from
Lily Gibson. Nichols carried the 2-1 advantage into halftime and continued to control the offensive momentum in the third quarter.
With just under a minute remaining in the third, Gibson added to the Bison lead, scoring at 44:01 to make it 3-1 heading into the final quarter. Hartford cut the deficit to one with 2:30 remaining when Taylor scored her second goal of the night at 57:30, only for Nichols to respond just 39 seconds later as Calabro scored at 58:09 to restore the two-goal advantage, and seal the 4-2 victory. Linehan and freshman
Anna Luke added the assists, Luke notching her first collegiate point.
Nichols finished the night with an 18-11 advantage in shots and earned eight penalty corners to Hartford's six.
Alyse Mutti paced the Bison with six shots, while Bianculli and Linehan each recorded four. Calabro and Gibson each finished with a goal and an assist, while Linehan and Bianculli also found the back of the cage. In goal,
Fallyn Belisle (3-1) made five saves to earn the victory for the Bison.
Field Hockey hits the road for a trip to Eastern Connecticut State University (1-2, 0-0 LEC) on Tuesday, September 15
th at 4:00 PM.
