Field Hockey's struggles continue

The Johns Hopkins field hockey team suffered a rough week, getting shut out twice and losing its first conference game to Gettysburg. After a 30-minute rain delay, the Blue Jays faced off against the Bullets on Tuesday night at Homewood Field, but the offense was unable to execute as Hopkins fell by a score of 3-0.

"We are very focused on conference play right now," said head coach Megan Callahan. "One loss in conference is not the end of the world. We have 10 games left and nine of them are against conference teams. The top five teams in each conference make the tournament, so our focus is to be one of those teams."

Gettysburg, which was recently ranked No. 19 in the coaches' poll, played dominant defense all night, limiting the Blue Jays to just one shot in the first half and two in the second.

The Bullets scored once in the first half, thanks to three impressive saves by junior goalkeeper Meredith Shifman. Maura Downey, the Bullets' leading scorer, was the only player who managed to sneak a shot past Shifman. In the 10th minute of the second half, Downey scored the second goal of the game on a rebound. Kelly Mishler knocked in Gettysburg's third goal of the night.

Hopkins' offense was limited to two shots by sophomore defender Leah Dudley and one by senior forward and captain Anna Rehwinkel. The Blue Jays were outshot, 10-3, on the night, but they did lead 7-5 in penalty corners. Gettysburg goalkeeper Katherine Corkhill preserved her team"s shutout with just two saves. Shifman"s five saves in the game were not enough to prevent Hopkins (2-6) from dropping its fourth game in a row. With the win, Gettysburg improved its record to 5-2 and is now 3-0 in conference play.

"We have been playing some pretty good defense," said Callahan. "But we are lacking leadership on our attack. There have been some major communication breakdowns and we have not been able to connect."

Tuesday night's loss came on the heels of a 2-0 defeat at the hands of a non-conference opponent, Kean University. The teams were deadlocked in a scoreless tie for most of the first half, despite 16 total shots between the two teams and nine penalty corners. The Cougars finally snapped the tie on a penalty corner immediately after the clock ran out in the first half. Tina Broomfeld fired the ball past sophomore goalkeeper Dayna Eng.

The second half was just as tight, with both teams playing tremendous defense and thwarting scoring attempts.

Kean's Dina Taylor managed the only goal of the half. The Cougars" goalkeeper, Concetta Valerio, earned the shutout by making three saves, while her Blue Jay counterpart, Eng, was credited with five saves. The teams were evenly matched in terms of shots, with Kean having a slight 15-11 advantage in that department. With the victory, Kean improved to 6-2 on the season.

In an effort to end its four-game skid, the team has been practicing more than usual and has even implemented a new defensive strategy.

"We changed our system to make the team more defensively-oriented and so far it has worked well," stated Callahan. "We simply have not been supporting well on the attack. Everybody is frustrated," said Callahan. "But we still have to look forward and focus on our upcoming games. Right now, we are all just concentrating on winning our game on Friday."