The AU women’s field hockey team defeated the College of Holy Cross 4-3 on Saturday and pushed past Temple University with the same score the following day to earn a 2-0 record for the team’s weekend performances.
The game against Holy Cross marked the beginning of Patriot League play for the Eagles, and AU jumped out to an early lead against its conference foe after an unassisted goal from junior forward Natalie Konerth.
The Eagles, who defeated Holy Cross last year 3-0, battled with the Crusaders for the remainder of the first half, but neither team managed a second point in the first 35 minutes. AU notched five shots on goal in the first half, while the Crusaders recorded four. AU senior Bree Mercado led the Eagles’ defensive efforts, and her fast-paced transition from midfield to the defense stopped many scoring opportunities from Holy Cross.
However, Holy Cross’ top-scorer sophomore forward Maureen Connolly tied the game just a few minutes after the break with an unassisted breakaway shot that flew past AU senior goalkeeper Kate McBeath. Connolly’s goal sparked a significant increase in action from the slow-moving first half, but the Eagles answered her goal with three points of their own. Nearly 55 minutes into the game, senior midfielder Jess Davis took an assist from Konerth and broke the tie to put AU back in the lead. Her conversion sparked the rapid-fire attack that produced AU goals from senior forward Katie Lonsky and another from sophomore forward Sophia Crawshay just 16 seconds later.
“After we got the second goal, our adrenaline surged, and they fell back just a fraction, and that was enough to get a third goal,” AU head coach Steve Jennings said. “Then we had extra momentum I think that just carried over.”
Holy Cross attempted to regain control with a goal by freshman forward Lauren Ineson less than a minute after Crawshay’s goal. The Crusaders continued also their comeback efforts with a goal from senior defender Kaitlyn Murray in the final 20 seconds of the game. While Holy Cross increased its pace and intensity, trying arduously to even the score in the last few moments, the Eagles stayed strong and came out on top.
“When they got on the board with the second goal, they had a lot of momentum,” Jennings said. “It was just a game of momentum changes with each team feeling strong and confident when they got something going and feeling maybe a little bit nervous and tentative when they were on the receiving end of the goal.”
Jennings praised the team for rebounding from its previous loss against Princeton six days prior, but he said the team still has room to grow as the season progresses.
“We played a lot better, we’ve started combining and connecting really well with our passing game,” Jennings said. “We created a lot of dangerous chances in the circle, and I’m disappointed that we conceded three goals today, but I think that we limited a fair amount of chances and we can improve in that area moving forward.”
On Sunday, AU followed it’s win against Holy Cross with another 4-3 win against Temple University. Davis and Konerth led the attacks early for the Eagles, and Davis added another goal to her season stat sheet after sending the ball into the net within the first 1:30 of the game. Freshman forward Rafaela Rubas put a second point on the board for her team seven minutes later, but Temple notched a goal in the final seconds of the first half to shatter McBeath’s shutout chances. The Eagles picked up their pace of play in the second half and nearly doubled their shots on goal by controlling the ball and maintaining possession. Junior midfielder Natalie Marsh sent the ball in front of the net for repeated corner opportunities and recorded two assists off of second-half goals from Davis and Lonsky.
The Eagles face off against Boston University away this weekend in another Patriot League match-up, where they will play the Terriers, who captured last year’s conference title.
