WATERVILLE, Maine -- Kate Sheridan (Hingham, Mass.) tied Colby College's all-time goal scoring record and teammate Becky Julian (South Windsor, Conn.) became the 10th player in program history to reach 100 career goals as the third-ranked Mules took a 17-12 win over Wesleyan University on Saturday at Bill Alfond Field.

Colby, which has a seven-game winning streak, is 8-1 overall and 5-1 in the New England Small College Athletic Conference. Wesleyan falls to 4-6 overall and 1-5 in league play.

Sheridan, already Colby's all-time point leader with 259 and counting, has 167 goals and 92 assists in her career. She tied the goal scoring record of Margaret Mauran '91, who had 167 goals from 1988 to 1991. The all-time assist record at Colby is 113 by Ally King '03. Sheridan, a three-time All-American, finished the day with four goals and three assists.

Julian only scored one goal for the Mules, but it was a milestone tally. Her 100th career goal came with 22:07 left in the second half after she had missed on some fine opportunities earlier in the game. Julian, an All-American last year, has 100 goals and 32 assists for 132 career points. Julian joins current teammates Sheridan and Lauren Barrett (109 goals, 18 assists) on the 100-goal club.

Wesleyan battled hard in the opening half and led 3-1 about nine minutes into the game. Wesleyan's Charlotte Hastings (Hartland, Vt.) and Colby's Heather Nickerson (Falmouth, Mass.) traded goals in the opening five minutes. The Cardinals got back-to-back goals from Maggie Lile (Wynnewood, Pa.) and Allie Lynch (Greenwich, Conn.) to take the 3-1 margin and force an early timeout by the Mules.

Colby responded after the timeout and scored five straight goals from 17:57 remaining to 11:37 left. Sheridan had two goals and one assist during the scoring run for a 6-3 Colby lead. Wesleyan, though, scored three of the final four goals of the half to cut the Colby lead to 7-6 at intermission. Jess Chukwu (Evanston, Ill.) had two of the three goals.

The Mules scored the first two goals of the second half from juniors Amy Campbell (North Andover, Mass.) and Kathleen Kramer (Norwell, Mass.) for a 9-6 lead. The Cardinals refused to give up and got the score back to a one-goal deficit at 9-8 with 23:36 to play off scores from Lile and Sarah Orkin (West Hartford, Conn.).

Colby scored four of the next five goals to get some breathing room. Cary Finnegan, a Colby captain along with Sheridan, blasted in a free-position shot with 12:05 left to give the Mules a 13-9 lead. The teams traded goals over the next nine minutes as Wesleyan cut the lead to 15-12 with 3:22 to play on a goal by Erin McCarthy (Ridgefield, Conn.).

The Mules scored the final two goals, including Sheridan's record tying goal with 59.5 seconds left. She had another opportunity moments later to break the record, but Wesleyan goaltender Maggie Drowica (Glen Head, N.Y.) made a terrific stop. Sheridan will get the first chance to break the career goal scoring record Tuesday when the Mules host Plymouth State at 4:30 p.m. in a non-conference game.

Besides her seven points, Sheridan also had four caused turnovers, four draw controls, and four groundballs. Nickerson finished with three goals and two assists, while Kramer had three goals to reach 12 goals in the past four games. Campbell added two goals and Finnegan had one goal and one assist. The Mules got one goal apiece from Barrett, Caroline Atwater (Catonsville, Md.), and Carly Rapaport (Cape Elizabeth, Maine).

Lynch led the way for the Cardinals with one goal and four assists. Eileen Gaffney (Manhasset, N.Y.) had three goals, Chukwu added two goals and one assist, and Orkin and Lile both scored twice.

Sarah Warnke (Lakeville, Conn.) stopped 10 shots in goal for Colby. Drowica made 15 stops for the Cardinals.

2009-04-04