F. Hockey beats St. Mary's

The phrase "home, sweet home" is a lot more than just a cliche for the Johns Hopkins field hockey team.

After having a mere two days to recover from an 8-3 away loss at the hands of No. 1 Salisbury -- and with a Thursday away game at No. 4 The College of New Jersey looming on the horizon -- the Jays enjoyed the comforts of a home game on Saturday against a nationally unranked team, beating St. Mary's 3-2.

The win brought Hopkins' home record to 2-0 (3-3 overall). However, with away games at TCNJ and No. 13 Gettysburg in the next week, the Jays know that their focus should be on the future.

"We like to focus on our game plan, and don't really think much about these teams' national rankings," said senior defender Carly Cammarata, one of the team's co-captains. "We want to focus on us, make sure we have the right game plan for us."

"We were supposed to watch film yesterday, and someone asked if we were watching a College of New Jersey game to see their team," said senior forward Kristan Lione. "But we don't really do that. We were watching our game against St. Mary's. We want to get teams to play our style."

Hopkins and St. Mary's traded goals for most of the game, with the Jays' strong corps of underclassmen providing most of the team's offensive numbers. Sophomore midfielder Sarah Bender was by all means the star of the day for Hopkins, scoring the game-tying goal on an assist from sophomore midfielder Lori Vislocky with just under 15 minutes to play.

Just 3:45 later, Bender capitalized on a penalty corner opportunity, providing an assist for freshman midfielder Leah Horton's game-winning goal, the first of her collegiate career.

"Sarah's got a great, strong hit that has helped us out a lot on corner shots," Cammarata said.

The huge contribution from freshmen and sophomores was no rarity for this year's Jays. Bender is currently the team leader in goals with five, and freshman forward Adair Landy knocked in her third goal of the year to tie the game and put the Blue Jays on the board 24 minutes into the game. In high school, Landy was a North Jersey Coaches Association All-Star in 2003 and 2004.

"We haven't had to teach the freshmen a lot. They've been really easy to play with," Cammarata said.

The Seahawks opened up the scoring early with an unassisted goal from sophomore Marianne Wood only 3:42 into the game, but Landy's goal 20 minutes later began a pattern of Hopkins playing catch-up in response to St. Mary's lead.

Despite outshooting the Seahawks 9-6 and having ten penalty corners to the Seahawks' one, Hopkins trailed at the half, 2-1, after St. Mary's sophomore Alison Femi hit in a goal at 27:39.

Sophomore goalie Dayna Eng's four saves -- combined with the Blue Jay offense's ability to control the clock -- shut down St. Mary's in the second half, with Bender's and Horton's goals going unanswered to seal the win for the Jays.

"Saturday's game was a really big win for us," said Lione. "We lost to them last year, and it was a really bad turning point for us. We're hoping that winning will do the exact opposite this year. The win brought greater morale for everyone, especially after the loss to Salisbury."

The win provided a respite from Hopkins' grueling schedule, but by improving their record to 3-3, it also put the team closer to their ultimate goal -- a trip to the postseason.

"This year, we have a great team dynamic. Everyone is on the same page about our goal, which is winning the Centennial Conference Championships and advancing to NCAAs," said Cammarata.

The Jays won the tournament in 2003, but then only finished 6-12 last year.

Hopkins will return to action this Thursday with an away game against The College of New Jersey. The Lions are 5-1 after losing a 1-0 battle to No. 6 Ursinus on Tuesday.