Field Hockey rallies from early deficit

By SAMMY BHATIA For The News-Letter

Hopkins field hockey landed a comfortable win over Washington College on Friday as they bounced back from an early 0-1 deficit to chalk up a decisive 3-1 victory. The Blue Jays are now 23-10 against the Washington College Shorewomen and, even more impressively, have now won ten of their past 11 meetings.

The event took place on Washington College’s home field in Chestertown, Md. and marked both teams’ openers in the Centennial Conference, a season-long competition between eleven schools along the East Coast. Last year, Hopkins finished in fourth place and is currently in third place for all-time conference victories, behind only Ursinus College and Gettysburg College.

“Going into the game, we knew we wanted to leave with a convincing win and make a statement to the rest of the conference,” said senior Elena Gresick, one of three captains of the Blue Jays.

The first goal of the game came early on, only a short nine minutes in, when Washington freshman Allison Remenapp redirected a shot from her teammate to take the initial lead.

Almost immediately, however, Hopkins was able to fire back as sophomore forward/midfielder Clare Kavanagh scored her first goal of the year to level the game.

“This goal was extremely special for her because it was her first of the season,” said Gresick. “You could see it in her celebration: she started jumping up and down after making it.”

The ensuing hour of play proved to be an extremely physical effort on both sides. The teams were neck and neck until late in the contest. The game-winning goal did not come until the second half at the 44:48 mark, when junior midfielder Victoria Piscopo tipped in a shot from sophomore Princess Sutherland, slipping it past the Washington goalie.

The game was almost leveled again when a Washington midfielder took a shot at goal, only to be blocked by senior forward Shannon Parker.

Total control of the game came into the hands of the Blue Jays as Gresick, unhappy with only a single point lead, took a shot from a distance on top of the circle. Her fellow captain, senior Leslie MacManus, swiftly managed to put away the rebounding ball after Washington’s goalie blocked the initial shot, thus sealing the contest.

The rest of the game was an effort to maintain the lead by keeping the ball in Washington’s territory. The captains praised the team’s goalkeeper, sophomore Greta Helvie, for letting in only a single shot of the 10 Washington took on goal, allowing the Jays to keep their opponent at bay and secure a victory.

The captains — Gresick, MacManus and senior Kiana Duncan — are decidedly happy with the way the team has played so far. As Gresick said, “Each and every game, win or loss, has truly been a team effort.”

Looking forward, the captains are confident in the team’s ability to power through the rest of the season.

“We will take each game one at a time and try to take the season as far as we possibly can,” Gresick said. “We believe we will be able to make it very far this season due to the depth of our entire team. From the four year starters to the freshmen just joining us, every single girl brings a unique talent and skill necessary for our team’s success.”

Gresick went on to praise the coaches, saying “We have two new, outstanding additions to our coaching staff, Katy Fuhrman and Danielle Thompson. They both bring new ideas and mindsets to further improve our team and the program. We are led by head coach, Megan Fraser, and with her continual leadership we will be able to really excel as a team for this season.”

Hopkins is now at a 4-2 win-loss record thus far, and the team will play 10 more games over the next five weeks until its season concludes.

The team’s next bout in the Centennial Conference will take place again on Saturday, Sept. 26 when it hosts the Muhlenberg College Mules. Hopkins leads the head-to-head rivalry 18-6, having lost against the Mules only once on Homewood Field and only once since 2010.

The game will be at 6 p.m. on Homewood Field.