The Elizabethtown College women’s field hockey team’s five-game win streak came to an end when Drew University defeated the Blue Jays on Saturday, Oct. 25, with a game score of 1-3. Just a day later, the team responded with a 5-1 victory over Moravian College on Sunday.
Senior Kaylee Werner scored early for the Blue Jays after only 41 seconds of play. It was her second goal of the season. The early goal put the Jays ahead, but Drew scored three unanswered goals to seal the win.
After Werner’s goal, the Blue Jays had the next six shots, four of which the opponent’s goalkeeper stopped, keeping the score at 1-0.
Drew tied the game at 1-1 in the 23rd minute of play from a penalty corner in Blue Jay territory.
With a tied score going into the second half, both teams were anxious to get the lead. At 49:19, Drew scored to put them up 1-2. Ten minutes later, they increased their lead to 3-1, with around ten minutes left of play.
Although the Blue Jays were unable to score the remainder of the game, they accumulated seven penalty corners. Senior Taylor Alwine and Werner both had chances to score, but neither could find a hole in the defense.
The team knows that taking advantage of penalty corners is crucial. “I think in the past we’ve really struggled with it, so we have worked consistently on it at practices this season,” Alwine said. “Everyone realizes how important those opportunities are during the games.”
Senior Emily Mason agrees. “Our coaches stress that we need to capitalize on corners since they are a prime opportunity to score,” she said.
Looking to rebound from the loss against Drew, the Blue Jays were ready to give it their all against Moravian College the following day. The Blue Jays came out on top with a 5-1 win. This win put the Blue Jays back into a second place position, tied with Juniata College.
The first goal occurred within the first three minutes of the game, starting from a penalty corner from Mason. The ball found her again, but the goalkeeper blocked her shot. Junior Alyssa Aichele fired the ball toward the goal when junior Jacki Hikes connected and finished the offensive effort to put the Blue Jays up 1-0.
Senior goalkeeper Selene Jones made three saves against the Greyhounds over the next six minutes. First-year Emma Christman scored the second goal of the game off a feed from senior Andrea Keady.
With under a minute left in the first half, the Greyhounds responded with a goal against the Blue Jays to make the score 2-1. In the second half, Mason came up with the third Blue Jay goal of the game and her fourth of the season.
At 47:20, Hikes followed a shot from Aichele, which was deflected by the Moravian goalkeeper. Then, Hikes put the ball on Aichele’s stick, and she found the back of the cage to put Etown up 4-1.
Christman scored her second of the game off a feed from sophomore Addie Stang to make the final score 5-1.
Etown’s defense dominated the efforts of the Greyhound offense, allowing just one shot in the entire second half.
Alwine has noticed development in the team throughout the course of the season. “Overall, we’ve been able to connect passes the length of the field and work together to have some great sequences of hockey,” she said. “I think we trust in each other’s abilities more now, and our communication has been improving, but there’s always more room for improvement.”
Mason also emphasized the importance of communication and its role in helping the team succeed. “Communication is needed on all aspects of the field and on both offense and defense,” she said. “It helps everyone to know where everyone else is, where the other team is and where the ball is on the field.”
The Blue Jays look to defeat the University of Scranton in Landmark Conference play. “They are a very good team and are looking to move up in the Landmark standings, so they will definitely come out strong and look to upset us,” Alwine said. “Knowing this, we need to take what’s left of our season one game at a time and stay focused on each opponent.”
With the win against Moravian, the Blue Jays’ Landmark Conference record is 4-2. Etown will host Scranton on Nov. 1 at Wolf Field for its final regular season Landmark Conference competition.
