Women’s field hockey finished their season with a shutout, defeating Vassar College 5-0 last Saturday.
This victory came after a heartbreaking overtime loss against Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
Going into the Saturday game, the Yellowjackets hoped to finish off the season with a win during Senior Night ? and UR did just that.
The first goal of the night game off the stick of freshman forward Ashley Kahan.
With only 2:41 knocked off the clock, Kahan shot the ball into the net with an assist from both sophomore midfielder Kaitlin Poeth and senior forward and midfielder Emily Zebrowski.
UR took the lead with this goal and didn’t lose it for the rest of the match.
In the 19th minute of play, senior midfielder and team captain Sierra Dillaway scored the second goal for UR off an assist from Poeth.
The Yellowjackets left the field after the first half with a 2-0 lead.
The second half belonged to both Poeth and junior forward Nicole Ketterer.
In a span of about 12 minutes, Ketterer racked up two goals for the Yellowjackets, while Poeth assisted in both and scored one of her own.
The first goal came with 27:26 left in the second half with an assist from senior back Kasey LaCerda and Poeth. The second goal from Ketterer came with 15:52 left on the clock.
The last goal of the second half was scored with 12:57 left on the clock. Poeth, shooting from a penalty corner, hit the ball into the top right corner of the net.
Sophomore goalie Pamela Sheffield was only forced to make three saves while UR pressured the Vasser goalies to make 16 in the 70 minutes of play.
“It was great to finish off [the season] so well,” senior captain and midfielder Sierra Dillaway said.
The shutout was the fourth of the season ? the first since Oct. 5.
The day before, RPI proved to be a tougher opponent for the Yellowjackets. The Engineers, ranked 19th nationally, defeated the Yellowjackets in overtime, 2-1.
The Engineers struck midway through the first half, scoring 15 minutes into the game.
Katie Coleman assisted Jessica Butler of RPI in the first goal for the Engineers.
But the Yellowjackets would not lose without a fight. With 10:18 left on the clock in the second half Poeth scored unassisted. Poeth broke away from the RPI defense and shot the ball into the side of the net.
With the end of regulation time, the score was 1-1. In overtime, the Yellowjackets were not into the match. RPI goalie Kathryn Zilka had no shots come her way, forcing the the burden of saving the game on the UR defense.
However, with 11:10 left on the clock in overtime, a three-on-one break-away led by Marie Grieco of RPI dashed the hopes of a win for the Yellowjackets.
“We just didn’t have that extra punch we needed,” Dillaway said.
As for the future of field hockey, Dillaway believes “they have even more of a chance to go to states next year.”
“We have a large sophomore class that is very strong and our freshmen have helped us out a lot,” said Dillaway.”I think the juniors this year will lead the team well next year.”
The Yellowjackets finished the season 8-11 overall.
Cupp can be reached at dcupp@campustimes.org.
