The Lafayette field hockey team fell 3-1 to Northeastern in its 2011 season opener on Saturday afternoon, in Cambridge, Mass. With the win, Northeastern improves to 3-0 on the season, while Lafayette moves to 0-1.

The Leopards scored the first goal of the game at 15:21 when sophomore Aimee Smith deflected a shot from Brittany Blass past the Huskies goalkeeper Lizzie Priest. Northeastern quickly answered with a goal by Crystal Poland, off a penalty corner, 23:30 into the first stanza.

Lafayette held the advantage in shots in the second half, 8-7, but was unable to beat Priest, who made five saves in the frame. Pam Aldridge was responsible for both Huskies goals in the half, scoring the game-winner at 46:02 and adding an insurance tally off a penalty corner less than ten minutes later.

"We played well in patches of the game, but not consistently enough for 70 minutes against a very solid Northeastern team," head coach Andrew Griffiths said. "We had some careless errors that led to goals against us."

Mara Kish played in the cage for the Maroon and White, turning away five shots in the process. Northeastern outshot Lafayette 19-13 in the game and earned 11 corners, compared to eight for the Leopards.

"We have to be more effective on our penalty corners, especially deflecting shots and controlling rebounds," Griffiths stated. "One for eight on corners is not good enough, but I thought our structure was good and we created a number of scoring opportunities."

In addition to picking up an assist on Smith's first half goal, Blass took four shots in her collegiate debut.

Lafayette returns to the field tomorrow afternoon, when it stays in Cambridge, Mass. to play Harvard at 1:00 p.m.