Field hockey takes down defending NCAA champions
The Saint Joseph’s University field hockey team was able to pull off impressive victories over the weekend with a 4-0 shutout against La Salle University and a 2-1 thriller against the University of Delaware.
Headed into Friday’s game against LaSalle, St. Joe’s maintained the 21st ranking in the Penn Monto/National Field Hockey Coaches Association Poll. This makes it their fourth consecutive week as a ranked squad.
Preparation for the Hawks matchup against La Salle at Hank DeVincent Field was out of the ordinary, to say the least. Head coach Lynn Farquhar made a point of this by commenting on the gameplan necessary to prepare for La Salle’s slow-paced, artificial turf field.
“The theme for the week was mentality,” Farquhar said. “Preparation was very challenging. We trained on both Ellen Ryan Field and Sweeney Field. Our own surface is preferable. It’s a very different game out there. We were forced to prepare for two separate gameplans.”
Hard work paid off for St. Joe’s leading up to this 4-0 victory. All four goals came in during the first half. Three came courtesy of freshman Quinn Maguire en-route to completing her first collegiate hat-trick. The first two were self-orchestrated within the first five minutes, and the final one was assisted by senior Jackalyn Pauling at the 25 minute mark.
“I’m so grateful to have been given the opportunity to accomplish such a thing,” Maguire said. “It gave me confidence headed into our matchup against Delaware.”
Junior Anna Willocks was able to put further exclamation on the first half by scoring off an assist from classmate Monica Tice in the last three minutes of half.
The second half was a defensive battle between the two teams. Sophomore Kathrin Bentz commented on how important St. Joe’s defensive showing was to the team’s overall performance.
“It’s always big to get a shutout, but it was even bigger for us to work well as a team and get the job done,” Bentz said.
Goalkeeper Victoria Kammerinke expanded on this by saying, “It was an important conference win and it gave us a lot of confidence headed into Delaware.”
The Hawks then made their way back to Ellen Ryan Field for a tough matchup against eighth ranked University of Delaware. St.Joe’s struggled to be aggressive offensively during the first half due to lack of possession. However, Kammerinke was able to make four key saves and stop the Blue Hens from taking full control of the game.
Delaware’s Greta Nauk scored the first goal of the game 11 minutes into the match, making it her 12th for the season. The score remained 1-0 headed into half.
At halftime, the Hawks had a conversation about their play.
“We have to believe and go back to playing our game,” Farquhar said. “Those were the main points we hit on while also reiterating the original game plan. Our strength is connecting.”
This seemed to work according to plan, because momentum quickly changed within the first three minutes of the new half. Willocks was able to score off a key assist from Maguire to tie the game up at 1-1.
“I sprinted down the field from the fifty,” Maguire said. “Our coaches told me to get down to the baseline so that’s exactly what I did. I found Anna [Willocks] in the perfect position.”
The next 22 minutes that followed were a series of key stops made by both teams.“Every save I make gives the team confidence and allows us to believe in each other,” Kammerinke said.
At the 68 minute mark, freshman Emily Henry scored what would be the game winner off an assist from Bentz. This was a huge moment for the Hawks and Henry credited her whole team for the goal.
“I wouldn’t have been able to do it without the support and pressure from my team,” Henry said. “We stepped up coming into the second half from the very first play where we dove in, got the ball, and really set the tone for the rest of the game.”
Farquhar also vocalized how happy she was for the Hawks to take down Delaware.
“I’m very proud of this team,” Farquhar said. “We started in August and we’re very young with ten new players. Delaware is an outstanding program and their speed is high tempo. Every player stepped up and played Hawk hockey.”
This win was crucial, as Delaware claimed last year’s NCAA national championship.
St. Joe’s looks to continue off of this momentum in preparation for next week with games against conference opponent University of Massachusetts on Oct. 20 and Northeastern University on Oct. 22. Both Massachusetts and St. Joe’s are 5-1 in A-10 standings, so the game will determine who will take the conference.
