Field hockey earns fifth consecutive shutout

The Hopkins women’s field hockey team continued their strong season this past weekend as the Jays defeated the Swarthmore College Garnet 4-0 to clinch a berth to the Centennial Conference Tournament for the first time since 2014.

Hopkins got off to a hot start at the 21:07 mark as junior midfielder Grace Hillman weaved around the circle and finished off a shot 10 yards out, going past the Garnet goalkeeper to put Hopkins up 1-0.

Barely 60 seconds later, senior forward Morgan Pothast doubled the Jays’ lead, backhanding a shot from five yards out that found the back of the net, making it a two-goal game in the Blue Jays’ favor.

Seven minutes later, the Jays capitalized on a penalty corner opportunity as freshman midfielder Seema Sajjan took the corner and got the ball to sophomore midfielder Katie McErlean, who ripped a shot at the goal.

McErlean’s shot was stopped by Swarthmore’s goalie, but freshman forward Valerie Henderson took the rebound off of the goalie’s pads and launched a shot that found the mesh to put Hopkins ahead 3-0 going into halftime.

Riding their momentum from their strong first half, the Jays held the Garnet scoreless with a stout defensive performance. The defense had their second shutout of the week, as they held McDaniel 3-0 the previous Wednesday.

The Blue Jays capped off the game against the Garnet with a goal from sophomore midfielder Christina Glaser, who scored her first career goal. With just 50 seconds left in the matchup, Glaser took the rebound off of her first blocked shot and buried her second attempt past the Garnet goalie. As time ran out, the Jays finished with a 4-0 victory.

“It felt really good to finally put the ball in the back of the cage,” Glaser said. “We hadn’t scored yet in the second half, so it was great to get one more goal in before the game ended.”

With the win, the Jays improve to 11-3 on the season and remain undefeated (7-0) in the Conference. Swarthmore fell to 7-7 on the season and 2-5 in the Conference.

The Jays’ 11 wins are the most since the 2010 season, and the seven Conference victories are the most since 2011. The Jays sit atop the Centennial, tied with No. 13 Franklin & Marshall.

The strong defensive showing by Hopkins was led by senior defender Francesca Cali, who was named Centennial Conference Defensive Player of the Week in honor of her efforts.

Cali and the rest of the Jays surrendered just nine shots in the shutout victory against Swarthmore and again only nine shots in their Wednesday shutout victory against McDaniel.

This was the Jays’ fifth consecutive shutout and their eighth shutout of the year, just one shy of the program record set back in 1989. This is the first weekly honor that Cali has received in her career as a Blue Jay, as well as the first of the season for the team.

The Hopkins goalies made the most of the few shots they saw, as senior Greta Helvie and sophomore Jodie Baris had a combined five saves between the tandem in the shutout effort.

“Our team mentality has been to view our season game by game, so we stay focused and excited to play every game with equal intensity,” sophomore defensive player Sophie Kim said.

The Jays head to Collegeville, Pa. this weekend to take on Ursinus College.

 Correction: The writer of this article was originally incorrectly identified as Brandon Fielder.