The AU field hockey team stretched the Patriot League Championship into overtime against nationally-ranked Lafayette before falling, 2-1, Nov. 3 in Easton, Pa.
“To beat [Lafayette], you have to have somebody do something with a fair amount of individual brilliance to create a breakdown scenario,” AU head coach Steve Jennings said. “They were really tough to kind of navigate through.”
AU’s Shelly Montgomery has shown such individual brilliance all season, and it was on display in the conference semifinals Nov. 2 against Bucknell. The junior scored two goals while leading the way in a 4-1 victory over the Bison, and she has proved to be key for the Eagles (10-10) all season.
But Montgomery didn’t score against the Leopards, who entered the contest ranked 12th in the nation. In fact, she didn’t even get a shot off.
The Leopards (17-1) clamped down on Montgomery, and AU could not return the favor to Lafayette’s star player, Deanna DiCroce.
DiCroce ranks seventh in the country in goals per game and was the difference in the match, scoring both Lafayette goals.
The defeat marked the end of the AU’s season, a year in which the Eagles battled back from a 3-7 start to finish at .500.
“In the first half of the season, we just relied on a lot of individual brilliance,” Jennings said. “When we got people to play in groups, that ended up changing things.”
The Eagles had five players named to the All-Patriot League Team. Montgomery and Gina Hofmann were named to the All-Patriot League First Team, while Hofmann also won PL Defensive Player of the Year.
Julie Fosseprez won PL Rookie of the Year and was named to the All-Patriot League Second Team, along with teammates Jaclyn Anspach and Rebecca Treharne.
Nearly the entire team will be back next season, including four of the five All-League players as the Eagles look to make another run at the conference crown.
“The knowledge of what happened at the beginning of the year and then what happened at the end of the year is critical for the group to understand,” Jennings said. “If we use that in the right way, then I think that we’ll understand how to be at a totally different level just starting out of spring.”
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