By John Vellante, Boston Globe


A year ago, Sammy Macy missed the NCAA Division 2 field hockey title game with a torn anterior cruciate ligament and meniscus. She looked on helplessly as her University of Massachusetts at Lowell teammates lost to Bloomsburg.

This season, a healthy and record-setting Macy was eager to even the score against the perennial Pennsylvania power. But less than six minutes into the game, UMass trailed 3-0 and the scene was cast. The River Hawks fell 6-2, finishing as the runner-up again. Macy, the former Merrimack Valley Conference MVP from Tewksbury, didn't know which was worse - this year or last.

"Last year, there wasn't anything I could do and it was a helpless feeling," she said. "It was so frustrating. This year, I can play and we went in hoping to play our best game of the season and bang, bang, bang, we're down 3-0. That hadn't happened to us before and we were shocked. And frustrated."

The loss, nonetheless, couldn't tarnish what was a brilliant season for the River Hawks in general, and Macy in particular. UMass finished the season 20-5 overall, 17-1 in Northeast-10 Conference play, and made its fourth NCAA final appearance in six years. Macy was the team's leading scorer with a record 28 goals and 64 points. That comes on the heels of an 8-7-23 freshman season and has her currently in eighth place on the all-time scoring list.

"Scoring all those goals this season really caught me by surprise," admitted Macy. "But I have to give credit to my teammates for that. They fed the ball to me. The record is nice, but I would rather have scored just two goals all season if we could have won that last game. A national championship would have meant so much more."

UMass coach Shannon Hlebichuk thinks Macy may yet get that chance.

"We have a couple of holes to fill, but with players like Sammy coming back and so many others that have gained valuable experience, I think we have the ability to get back to this point," said Hlebichuk, the NE-10 Coach of the Year for the sixth straight season. "I think we will match up very well with most teams next year."

Hlebichuk admitted it was "extremely frustrating" to find her team down 3-0 so early in the game, but says, "I am a realist and at the end of the day the best team won."

Macy, according to Hlebichuk, "plays with passion and a chip on her shoulder, an air of confidence, that we like and we need on the forward line. She scores a lot of goals, but I think what most people don't see is her playmaking ability. She was credited with eight assists, but if you look at the other potential goals that she set up that we didn't finish, the number would be unbelievable. She really sees the whole field very well."

UMass had a handful of area players on the team, including sophomores Lizzy Ales (3 goals, 4 assists for 10 points) of Arlington, Liz Day (8-4-20) of North Andover, Jaime Hadley (0-2-2) of Chelmsford, and freshman Annie Hansbury (0-1-1) of Plaistow, N.H. Senior Jessica Ellis of Nashua, who sat out the season with an injury, was the captain.