It was a disappointing weekend for the women's field hockey team who took two tough home losses. The Lady Jays now carry a 3-3 record on the season after a roaring start.
On Saturday Hopkins played its home opener against Rhodes.
"Going into Rhodes, we knew they were a good team, and we knew we just had to control the game," junior goalie Zoey Atabek said.
Hopkins tried to do just that, aggressively taking shots for some great chances, but the first half left the team trailing 1-0. Rhodes scored its only goal 33 minutes in, off a penalty corner. In the second half the Lady Jays continued to fire away but failed to score the equalizer.
"We did a great job passing and seeing the field. We drew a lot of corner calls, and we had a lot of scoring opportunities. We just couldn’t convert any of them for a goal," Atabek said.
Sophomore Clare Kavanagh, who had six shots in the game, had two great chances at goal in a late possession, but the Lynx defense was able to clear the shots away.
Despite the loss, Hopkins ripped 20 shots in the game, showing that the team is capable of generating offensive pressure. Junior Kiana Duncan said, "We dominated the entire game. Looking forward, we will definitely be working on putting the ball in the goal."
Even on the defensive end, Hopkins was generally dominant; the Lady Jays were able to limit Rhodes to just two shots. "The defense did a great job marking their players and didn't give up a lot of shots in circle play, which can be tricky," Atabek said.
Rhodes goalie Erin Bailey posted an impressive shutout with six saves on the day.
Despite the tough loss on Saturday, the team battled through the adversity and returned to the field on Sunday, where the Lady Jays faced off against The College of New Jersey (TCNJ), a very strong ninth-ranked team. Hopkins struggled to find scoring opportunities in the game, only recording five shots, and took a difficult 7-0 loss.
An early TCNJ goal off a penalty corner at 2:49 set the wrong tone for the game.
"We were on our heels for the entire game, and it made it pretty difficult to actually start moving forward," Duncan said.
The Lady Jays continued to fight until the end but did not manage to score. TCNJ was able to hold the Hopkins team out of their defensive end for the majority of the game.
The large array of attacks from TCNJ proved to be a bit too much for Hopkins; they got off an incredible 40 shots. Freshman goalie Greta Helvie's five saves and Atabek's 13 saves prevented a wider deficit.
Atabek said, "Personally, I thought I did a good job communicating with my defense. Getting them organized really helps make my job easier."
Hopkins struggled with individual defense, which gave TCNJ their scoring chances. "We got called for a lot of fouls in the circle, giving TCNJ a lot of penalty corners that they were able to capitalize on. Also, we had a lot of double teaming opportunities that we didn't execute," Atabek said.
The Lady Jays took two unfortunate losses this weekend but have their first conference game of the season coming up on Saturday. After a step back from what was so far a great season, Hopkins looks to get right back on track.
There are several parts of the game that the Lady Jays will try to improve on for the Washington College game. With extensive practice and film analysis, there is little doubt that they will be ready.
"We need to capitalize more on our scoring opportunities, especially on penalty corners. We also need to work on individual defense and defensive double teams," Atabek said.
The first thing the Lady Jays will want to address is their scoring. "The rest of our games are against conference opponents, so we really need to be winning and scoring," Duncan said.
The team's biggest goal for the season is to make it into the conference tournament that the Lady Jays have been edged out of in the past two years. The Lady Jays will aim to begin fulfilling these goals as they open up conference play.
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