AU Field Hockey coach Steve Jennings knows how to take things one at a time.
Rather than dwelling on the past, he lives moment to moment, and his strategic approach helped guide the Eagles to a 1-0 victory over Drexel University on Sept. 14, despite a heartbreaking loss to Towson University the day before in the Terrapin Invitational at the University of Maryland.
“It’s hard to overstate how important it was for us to get back on the right track,” Jennings said. “I think it was a really difficult game for the team emotionally to put behind them, what happened yesterday and just move forward, and I was really proud of their ability to do so.”
The Eagles (4-2, 0-0) entered the game with a target on their backs, and Drexel (3-3, 0-0) responded with physicality. Within the first five minutes of play, both teams drew penalty corners, but strong defense kept the game scoreless.
Senior defender Grace Wilson and junior defender Rebecca Treharne consistently fought to keep the ball in AU possession, and neither team managed more than four shots in the first half. Freshman defender Angela Virtu also forced numerous Drexel turnovers inside the Eagles’ zone.
“Angela has been awesome the whole year, and she was a force out there,” Jennings said. “Together with her, Grace, Becks and Kate [McBeath] they did a great job of being able to keep things tight and not give very many opportunities for a strong Drexel team to get shots off.”
With three minutes to play in the first half, freshman forward Leah DiGiandomenico sent a sharp pass to sophomore forward Natalie Konerth, who swept the ball past Drexel senior goalkeeper Jantien Gunter to create a rush of momentum and give the Eagles the lead heading into halftime.
“I think [the goal] was great for our confidence just to be up in the game, and I felt like we were able to settle down a bit after that. So that was a nice punctuation mark on some strong play that we had had in the first half,” Jennings said, “but we knew that there was a long way to go, and we had to keep going and fighting.”
Konerth, who also scored the game-winning point against Old Dominion University earlier this year, brought much needed confidence to her team, and they rallied behind her success.
AU held Drexel scoreless in the second half, but the Dragons still outshot the Eagles 7-4 over the course of the game. Sophomore midfielder Jessica McCarthy led the offensive efforts for Drexel racking up three shots, and senior midfielder Christina Conrad followed closely, attempting two shots of her own.
Despite the Drextel attacks, AU Junior goalkeeper McBeath remained stoic in goal, and her strong play helped her secure her fourth shutout of the year.
The Eagles face Lehigh University on Sept. 20 in their first conference matchup of the season, but Jennings remains focused on the present.
