After having much success on the offensive end of the game, the Elizabethtown College Field Hockey team took a loss, 0-4, to nationally-ranked No. 9 Ursinus College.
Etown is now 2-3 on the season, but sees the game against Ursinus as a learning opportunity. “Some things that we took away from the Ursinus game to improve on for the rest of the season were to make sure that we are communicating with every player on the field so that we can all play our best together,” first-year goalkeeper Margo Donlin said.
The Blue Jays faced a lot of offensive pressure early on from the Bears of Ursinus, but they were able to hold their opponents to 0-1 at the end of the first half. Donlon had a career-high 11 saves in the game, eight coming in the first half. Ursinus had 18 shots in the first-half alone and added 12 shots in the second half.
“My personal goals are to keep playing my best and to make sure that I don’t let any mistakes consume me and instead learn from them so I can improve for the next day,” Donlin added.
Early on, Etown came up with big defensive saves. A penalty corner occurred in Blue Jay territory, but Megan Keenan from Ursinus could not put the ball past Donlin to find the back of the cage. Ursinus threaded a ball from a corner to try and score, but junior Addie Stang prevented them from scoring.
Ten minutes before halftime, Ursinus found success when Ursinus’ Brooke Overly scored to put them up 1-0. In the second half, two players from Ursinus increased its lead, with two goals coming from Ann Kopera and one from Amber Steigerwalt.
On the offensive end, senior Alyssa Aichele had the only two shots on behalf of the Blue Jays.
Donlin thinks that the game against Ursinus will be able to prepare them for their competition against Wesley College. “In order to be successful against Wesley, we need to continue to improve every game, like we’ve been doing so far this season, which I am confident that we can do,” Donlin said. “We also need to make sure that we are continuing to play as one unit instead of eleven individuals because we have improved so much since the beginning of the season when we didn’t play as well together.”
The Blue Jays have their first Landmark Conference game against Catholic University in Washington D.C. on Saturday, September 29.
