Field hockey began its Upstate Collegiate Athletic Association matches this past weekend at Fauver Stadium ? Friday, taking on Skid-more College, and then Saturday, battling against Union College.
Against Skidmore College, who is 4-0 overall, the Yellowjackets dug themselves too deep of a hole. After only the first half, UR was down 4-0.
However, determination soon began to take hold of the Yellowjackets. Scoring quickly into the second half, senior back fielder Kasey LaCerda, with an assist from sophomore Kaitlin Poeth, brought the deficit down to three with 31 minutes left on the clock.
Poeth, after assisting LaCerda, scored her own goal soon after.
With 24:59 remaining in the game, UR was awarded a penalty corner. Senior midfielder and captain Sierra Dillaway passed the ball to Poeth, who was waiting to take the hit into the net.
With less than 15 minutes on the clock, Poeth tried to pull the Yellowjackets within one. Able to break away from the Skidmore defense, Poeth shot at the net, but was deflected by goalie Rebecca Schling.
In the second half, the defense held up well allowing only five shots on goal all of which were blocked by sophomore goalie Pamela Sheffield.
However, the lapse in the defense during the first half was unrecoverable. The Yellowjackets lost 4-2.
?We need to start off from the first whistle,? said Dillaway, ?and really play well.?
After their loss on Friday, the Yellowjackets came back on Saturday morning with confidence against Union College, who stands at 1-4.
?We knew what went wrong on Friday and had it all fixed for Saturday?s game,? junior forward Nicole Ketterer said. ?Our marking had improved and so did our communication skills [since yesterday].?
After a scoreless first half in which UR took 18 shots, as compared to Union?s 7, Union scored with only 2 minutes knocked off the clock.
Soon after, however, with 24:43 on the clock, Ketterer scored the equalizer, assisted by a pass from Poeth.
Minutes later, the Yellowjackets scored another goal, this time from Dillaway. But, in battling fashion, Union made the score 2-2 with just under 12 minutes remaining.
The game winner came from the stick of freshman forward Ashley Kahan.
With under a minute left in the game, Kahan shot the ball into the corner of the net, just past the Union goalie, Jessica Wells. UR wrapped up the game 3-2.
The Yellowjackets next play William Smith College at Fauver Stadium today at 4 p.m.
Cupp can be reached at dcupp@campustimes.org.
