Field Hockey News

The Hockeyroos have continued their dominance over world number 4 team China during their 6 test series, recording a massive 8-1 win over China in game five of the series overnight in Perth.

The Hockeyroos have been in tremendous form throughout the entire series, winning four of the five games and drawing once, giving them confidence that they are on the right track as the London Olympics approaches.

Penalty corner specialist Jodie Schulz was again a key for the Hockeyroos, continuing her purple patch of form and scoring four goals during the win.

The goal fest was a welcomed signed for the Hockeyroos, having not scored eight goals or more since April 2010 against Malaysia at the World Cup Qualifiers.

The Hockeyroos made the best possible start to the game, with Schulz and captain Madonna Blyth scoring a goal each within the first nine minutes to set up a dominant lead.

Goals were harder to come by for the remainder of the first half, but young defender Anna Flanagan was able to give the team momentum leading into the half time break, converting another penalty corner goal just before the end of the half.

Schulz picked things up right where she left off early in the second half, converting another penalty corner only three minutes after half time.

When Kellie White converted Australia’s fourth goal only three minutes later to make it 5-0, the Hockeyroos continued to play with confidence and were determined to play out the full 70 minutes.

Two more goals to Schulz followed by a field goal to striker Georgia Nanscawen made it 8-0 with ten minutes remaining.

China was able to claw one goal back in the dying minutes but the damage was already done, with the Hockeyroos emerging as deserved winners.

The final game of the series will be played tonight in Perth.

Hockeyroos 8 China 1 (3-0 half time)

Goals – Aus Jodie Schulz 5m PC/ 38m PC/ 44m PS/ 59m PC, Aus Madonna Blyth 9m FG, Aus Anna Flanagan 35m PC, Aus Kellie White 41m FG, Aus Georgia Nanscawen 57m FG, Chn Qingling Song 67m FG

 

After six straight wins, the Yale field hockey team is certainly enjoying its two-way tie for first place in the Ivy League.

The mood seems to be much more somber in Providence, where Brown has lost all Ancient Eight games this season.

The Bulldogs (10–6, 5–1 Ivy) are looking to clinch its seventh straight win for a share of the Ivy title as they take on the Bears (4–12, 0–6) at Johnson Field this Saturday on Senior Day at 1 p.m.

“I think everyone really wants it badly,” back Lexy Adams ’13 said. “Everyone is really into it. In order to go any farther we have to give it our all.”

The team has not won an Ivy title since 1980. Although recent years have brought agonizingly close results — the past eight years have brought four second-place finishes — midfielder Dinah Landshut ’12 said this year the team is better at bouncing back from an opponent’s goal.

“We don’t get back in our heels anymore,” she said in a previous interview. “Instead we are looking to score the goal and shut the opponent down that way.”

Offensive power play this season has brought Yale up in national rankings. In the latest womensfieldhockey.com poll, Yale ranked 19th in the country. Yale is currently ranked seventh in the nation in terms of goals per game with 3.88.

The individual players are some of the best the team has seen in years. The Bulldogs boast two top-15 players: Landshut — who also holds Yale’s career assist record with 43 — at sixth and forward Erica Borgo ’14 at 13th in assists per game. This is the first time in 32 years of school history that two players reached double digits in assists in the same season. On the defensive line, goalkeeper Emily Cain ’14 ranks 19th in the nation with a save percentage of .750 and 1.95 goals-against average.

Yale started off one of its best weekends with a 3–1 win over Columbia on Friday. On Sunday, back Erin Carter ’12 — three-time Ivy League Player of the Week this season — blasted the 56th goal of the season the Elis’ 8–0 shutout over Holy Cross to break the 13-year-old school record for goals and assists of 53 and drive the field hockey team to its sixth straight win.

Although the Bulldogs fell to the Bears in four of their last six games, forward/midfielder Mary Beth Barham ’13 said that Yale is ready to play and give this match its all this Saturday.

“At this point in the season we know we have to give it our all,” she said in a previous interview. “We want to finish strong.”

Brown will bring two former All-Ivy League honorable mentions: forward Leslie Springmeyer — a three-time All-Ivy pick—and back Laura Iacovetti. The two will face Yale in their final game as seniors on Saturday.

The Class of 2012 — including Carter, Landshut, forward Mia Rosati ’12, back Taylor Sankovich ’12, forward/midfielder Kirsten Krebs ’12 and midfielder/back Chelsey Locarno ’12 — will be honored as part of Senior Day for winning the second most games in Yale history.

By the time the Bulldogs face off with the Bears on Saturday, Yale will know whether this game is for the Ivy League title or a share of it, since Princeton — with whom Yale shares the first-place title — plays Penn on Friday. But back Adamssaid that the team will continue playing its game this weekend.

“We’re all absolutely playing as hard as we can,” she said. “But I definitely think it’s a one-game-at-a-time mentality.”

 Measuring the success of any season can be difficult. Some say that if the team doesn’t win the final game, the championship, then the season can be forgotten.

 

For the Drexel field hockey team, this is not the case. The success of the season is measured by how well the team handled losing top scoring threats from the previous year, how the team managed to acclimate 10 new players, including eight freshman or how the squad adapted to playing in front of a brand-new goalkeeper.

The success of this season for the Dragons must be measured not by the final record (10-9, 3-5 Colonial Athletic Association) but by how much the team grew from day one until the final whistle sounded.

“The season was exciting from start to finish — so many close games,” Head Coach Denise Zelenak said. “Some of my favorite wins were Temple, Louisville and JMU’s double-overtime taking the win in strokes.

“It’s hard to say lows because so many of our losses were well-fought, close games, having three losses within one goal against top-ranked teams like Cal-Berkley, Northeastern and No. 1 ODU.”

The Dragons played in a number of close games throughout the year, losing eight of nine games by only one or two goals.

While they started the season 7-3, the strength of schedule seemed to wear on them.

“This is the most difficult schedule that we have ever had during my time at Drexel, and with such a young team, we were really proud of how well we performed overall,” Zelenak said.

Getting new faces on the team to become forces on the field can be pointed to as one of the finest achievements of Drexel’s field hockey team.

“We were two halves of a team before, upperclassmen and freshman,” senior Monica Baick said. “As the season went on, we became a whole team and everyone knew they could count on the person standing next to them regardless of age or experience.”

Junior standout Amanda Fleischut also took pride in how the team responded to losing so many key players.

“I am really proud of how we handled being a very young team this season. It’s not always an easy thing for a team to go through, especially after losing a big senior class.”

The Dragons did not finish the season how they would have liked to. With four consecutive losses against four very worthy adversaries, Drexel narrowly missed a trip to the CAA Tournament.

“No one likes to lose, thus it was really tough for the team, as well as the coaches, to know we were so close to achieving our end-of-the-season goals,” Zelenak said.

With that being said, Zelenak is still proud of how her team performed and hopes the lessons learned will benefit them next season and in seasons to come.

“We can improve our passing and focus on playing a full 70 minutes of good hockey,” sophomore Kristen Focht said. “Most importantly, we just need to be confident in our abilities and our talent as a team. We can do a better job of staying composed and confident that we will find a way to win.”

The future looks promising for this squad, and next season you can expect them to be back with a vengeance. Despite how the season ended, the leadership and talent are in place. One thing this team will not fail to do is work hard.

“We had to overcome a lot of obstacles this season, but we faced every challenge head on,” Focht said. “Even though the season didn’t end the way we would have liked, we never stopped playing hard.”