No. 1 Salisbury St. barely defeats Field Hockey

A seventeen game Centennial Conference winning streak came to an end in last Wednesday's contest against Franklin & Marshall. But even worse, the Johns Hopkins Field Hockey team's losing streak has been stretched to five as they dropped two more games versus Dickinson and number one ranked Salisbury.

The Blue Jays walked into Wednesday afternoon's game with a record of 2-3, but maintained a very strong defensive mind set nonetheless. This could be seen in the fact that the Diplomats were not able to score until the final six minutes of the match.

Yet this was the difference, though defensively they remained powerful, on the offensive side they were being taken over.

The shot comparison was a whopping 32-4 in favor of the Diplomats, which led to the 2-0 victory for Franklin and Marshall.

The second game of the week came on Thursday versus the top-ranked Salisbury Sea Gulls. Salisbury faced Hopkins with an unyielding confidence having an undefeated 7-0 season up until this game.

Yet the Blue Jays were not the slightest intimidated as Jenny Farrelly said, "They probably expected us to just roll over us because we aren't ranked, but we kept them scoreless for a long time and they are a team that is used to scoring a lot."

It was in this game that Blue Jay goalkeeper Missi Schafhauser recorded an amazing career high of 40 saves, but to no avail as the Sea Gulls won 3-0.

Their last loss came in a very disappointing game against Dickinson on Saturday.

There was a similar theme to that of the Franklin and Marshall game, as the Blue Jays were being out-shot, but not allowing any points to be scored.

Schafhauser had nine saves. It was not until there was only 1:30 left on the clock that the Red Devils were able to throw a goal on the board.

But this was not without any controversy according to Farrelly. "According to players who were right by the play, one of the Dickinson players kicked the ball into the cage . they shouldn't have been awarded that goal despite arguments from our coaches the refs didn't change their minds and we ended up losing."

With a close game slipping out of their grasp, the Blue Jays have a record of 2-6. They have another concern, their anemic offense has failed to score a goal in the last four losses, though they have had tremendous defensive performances.

It becomes clear they need to be able to couple both a strong offense with their strong defense if they plan on having the success Hopkins has seen in the past.

Though many players left last year's roster, Rachel Callaway sees the team getting through this slump.

"We're still trying to gel as a team and it's been really hard for us these past few games, but we're definitely starting to pull it together and think we're going to come out strong for our upcoming games."

They will get their chance on Thursday at Catholic College and against Bryn Mawr on Saturday.