Field Hockey Falls

GOVINDA AVASARALA

The University of Mary Washington field hockey team saw its three game win streak snapped on Saturday after a 4-0 loss to Salisbury University.
The Eagles, who hadn’t allowed a goal in seven consecutive halves, fell a goal behind with 14 minutes left in the first half when Salisbury’s Beverly Beladino scored her first of four goals. Beladino netted her second on an assist from Ashley Twigg with 9:08 left in the first half.
The Eagles finished the first half down 2-0.
For most of the second half, the Eagles stayed in the game, playing good defense, and made sure that none of the Seagulls’ star players were able to extend their lead.
Senior forward Carly Hambley said UMW wanted to stop Beladino and Salisbury’s other threat, Danielle Twilley.
“[We] tried to put a tight mark on [them] all game in the midfield and we tried to run the ball up the sides of the field and keep it out of the middle,” she said.
While the plan worked on Twilley, who only managed to take two shots during the entire game, it didn’t work as well on Beladino, who capitalized on an apparently fatigued Eagles team to score two more goals in the last three minutes of the game.
Senior forward Kalyn Perkins said there were fewer substitutions than normal.
“They scored two quick goals which was probably because we didn’t sub a lot in the game, and we’re used to rotating lines and we were probably tired,” she said.
The Eagles also struggled on offense and didn’t see many opportunities to score. UMW was outshot 25-12 over the course of the game, with a decisive 15-2 margin in the first half.
Hambley was disappointed with her team’s inability to finish.
“We played a really great game and we played as a team but we couldn’t capitalize on the few opportunities we had,” she said.
With the Capital Athletic Conference tournament just around the corner, the team is looking to improve on their offense and complement an already strong defense.
The Eagles defense ranks among the best in the conference, leading the league lead in shutouts (seven) and placing second in the league in goals against average (1.28 goals against per game).
Hambley said capitalizing on scoring opportunities will be a primary focus in practice before the conference tournament.
The Eagles closed their season by defeating Randolph-Macon College 1-0 yesterday at Senior Night.
Junior forward Alison Weckstein scored the game’s only goal, propelling UMW to a 10-8 regular season record.
The fifth-seeded Eagles will travel to Owings Mills, Md. Sunday to face fourth-seeded Villa Julie College in the first round of the CAC tournament.
A win Sunday would set up a rematch with top-seeded Salisbury University.