The St. Thomas Aquinas College Field Hockey team suffered a heartbreaking 2-1 overtime setback at Southern New Hampshire University on Saturday afternoon in Manchester, NH.

In the opening quarter of play, STAC started the scoring 7:17 into the frame as Lisa Larsson deposited a Lotte Strijbos penalty corner attempt into the back of the Penmen net to make it 1-0 in favor of the visitors from Sparkill. Almost four minutes later, Southern New Hampshire would get themselves on the score sheet on an Emily Campbell tally to square things at one goal apiece. The teams would trade additional chances in the first quarter, but the scoreboard would remain deadlocked at 1-1 at the buzzer.

The Spartans and Penmen would engage in a largely defensive battle for the final three quarters of regulation, with Southern New Hampshire getting a majority of the shots. However, it would be the stellar play of the STAC backend and goalie Suzanne Clarke that would keep the game even for 45 minutes and force the extra session.

Overtime would see Southern New Hampshire capitalize on a Laura van der Doorn strike on a pass from teammate Helene Servais 4:13 into the sudden death period to end the game and give the Penmen at 2-1 victory.

Spartan keeper Suzanne Clarke (L, 4-7) made 5 stops on the afternoon, while her counterpart in the Southern New Hampshire goal, Melanie Rennie (W, 9-3) made 2 saves.

SNHU held a 17-5 shots and 11-4 penalty corners advantage over STAC for the game.

St. Thomas Aquinas College (5-7) next heads to the University of New Haven for a 7pm contest on Wednesday, October 16th.