The field hockey team (1-1 Patriot League, 5-4 overall) faced a challenging weekend, clashing with the reigning Patriot League champions American University (1-0 Patriot League, 5-5 overall), in a double-overtime loss on Friday before falling to No. 19 Penn State University (6-3 overall) 5-1 on Sunday.
In a tense rematch of last season’s Patriot League Championship, the Leopards held American University to just four shots on goal but ceded a score in the second overtime period to fall 1-0 at Rappolt Field to the defending champs.
Junior defender Makenzie Switzer said that the week of preparation leading up to the game “was practically the same as any other week, except for the fact that we knew we’d have to play American at the end of the week.”
“I think there is absolutely a mental side to playing a team like that so many times,” she added.
While the Maroon and White put up five shots on goal throughout the game, the two teams remained deadlocked through regulation, with American’s golden goal landing at 8:30 in the second overtime period and the Leopards failing to get a shot off in the final overtime.
Despite the result, the Leopards created several scoring chances throughout the match, registering eight total shots. Junior goalkeeper Raffi Fragomeni made three crucial saves, adding to her total of 37 for the season.
The best opportunity for the Maroon and White arrived in the first overtime when senior midfielder Lineke Spaans found herself alone in the circle, but her effort was stopped by the American goalkeeper.
“I wish that I could’ve scored or gone around the goalkeepers, but I didn’t have enough control of the ball,” Spaans said.
Compared to the scoreless offensive performance, the Leopards’ defense was strong, limiting the Eagles to nine total shots and three penalty corners.
“I think in games like these we just need to be better in capitalizing on the moments we earn because they might not come as often as in some other games,” Switzer said.
Two days later, the Leopards traveled to State College, Pennsylvania, to face No. 19 Penn State. The Leopards fell 5-1, but the scoreboard didn’t tell the full story – the Maroon and White outshot the Nittany Lions 16-10 and earned nine penalty corners to Penn State’s four.
“We started off really strong, dominating the first quarter,” sophomore defender Ines Araujo said. “The game itself was well fought between both teams, but ultimately we couldn’t get the ball over the goal line.”
“I can confidently say the score did not reflect the grit and competitiveness of the game,” she continued.
The Maroon and White applied constant offensive pressure, outshooting Penn State 6-4 in the first half, but the team still headed into halftime down 2-0.
Penn State added to their lead early in the second half, with a score off a penalty corner followed by two more goals in the final period. The Leopards’ lone goal came in the fourth quarter, with sophomore forward Emma Maher scoring at 54:10, assisted by Lineke Spaans.
“We played really well as a team in the beginning, but we did not capitalize on our set pieces,” Spaans said. “We need to do better, considering we outshot them.”
Although the weekend marked the first set of consecutive losses of the season, the team still looks to remain level-headed moving forward. Araujo said that the team’s key takeaways from the game were “attacking penalty corners and goal scoring.”
“We had great shots on goal but failed to execute on rebounds and framing the cage for tip-ins,” she said.
The Leopards return to Patriot League play tonight with a 6 p.m. matchup at Bucknell University. They will return home this Sunday with a match against Providence at 12 p.m. at Rappolt Field.
“I think it’s important that our mentality doesn’t shift to ‘we need to change everything,’” Switzer said. “There are absolutely things we need to get better at, but there is also so much we’re doing really well.”