In the first Patriot League championship between the two teams, the field hockey team was dethroned by Boston University in a back-and-forth 3-2 game.
The Terrier underdogs (3-3 Patriot League, 8-11 overall) are the first No. 4 playoff seed to win the tournament since Colgate University in 1996 and have not clinched the title since 2018.
The Leopards (5-1 Patriot League, 12-7 overall) were only able to thwart Boston’s defense in one of seven penalty corners, the only successful attempt against the Massachusetts natives in the tournament of 15. However, the defending champions were unable to stop top scorer Caroline O’Brien, who carried the Terriers to victory with a hat trick.
Senior goalkeeper Raffi Fragomeni called the game a “super unfortunate loss,” since the group would have been only the second in program history to win a back-to-back championship.
Boston scratched first on its second penalty corner that deflected left past Fragomeni. The 1-0 scoreboard was the first time Lafayette trailed in the tournament, and the Maroon and White would be unable to take a lead for the remainder of the game.
Shortly afterwards, the Maroon and White secured a chance to respond with their third penalty corner, but the ball deflected high in the stick of stopper junior forward Lea Good, preventing a shot. Despite some other good looks, Lafayette could not get a tally onto the scoreboard going into halftime.
Fragomeni said that Boston had a “very strong midfield and attack,” whereas the Leopards’ strength lay in their defensive line.
“I think that’s where we got that back and forth,” she said. “They would come and try to attack in our half of the field, and we would shut them down, and then we’d go attack, and then their midfield line would be repressing.”
“It was really chaotic, and I wish we could have taken a little bit more of the chaos out of the game and won the ball there,” she added.
A penalty corner towards the end of the third quarter finally tied the game, when freshman midfielder Rosalie van Gool’s rocket was deflected by junior forward Maddie Evans to sneak slowly past the goalie into the cage.
“I think the way we attacked was so much better than when we played them the first time,” Fragomeni said. The Leopards were outshot by the Terriers in both contests this season, but were able to get a few more off in the second matchup.
Boston almost retook the lead at the end of the quarter on a penalty corner that was stopped in front of the goal by junior defender Lena Thedrian — at first called a goal — but the ball hit her foot, prompting a penalty corner. Fragomeni blocked the one-on-one shot with her right foot to maintain the tie 1-1.
“I just knew I needed to keep our team in the game,” Fragomeni said. “It was such a relieving feeling to finally save one of those in a big moment like that.”
With both teams on the hunt for a lead in the fourth quarter, despite being a woman down after a yellow card, O’Brien beat the Leopard defense to find herself in a one-and-one with Fragomeni. She snuck a shot between the goalie’s left foot and the goal post to retake the lead.
But Lafayette was finally able to take advantage of being woman-up, with Fragomeni pulled halfway through the quarter for an extra field player. Just seconds later, junior midfielder Stella Malinowski got a shot off from the center of the circle that bounced off the left goalpost into the cage to tie the game once again, her second goal of the tournament.
In a stroke of bad luck for the Leopards, senior midfielder Josephine van Wijk, an offensive leader for the team, left the field injured with nearly three minutes left after being shut down throughout the game.
Before the two-minute mark hit, the Terriers retook their final lead of the game with one last backhanded shot from O’Brien that soared into the goal. Fragomeni was once again pulled for the extra woman, but the Leopards could not get within attacking range to push the game to overtime.
The bus ride home felt “very surreal,” Fragomeni said.
“It’s the last time that that group of 27 girls are going to be together,” she explained. “You just dedicated 365 days of your life to that season for that day, but it felt very connected.”
