The Hoyas’ women’s field hockey team extended their winning streak to three games on Tuesday, defeating the Towson Tigers 5-2 on Kehoe Field and evening their record at 3-3.
Five minutes into contest, first-year forward Jessica Quinn opened the scoring and extended her consecutive goals streak to five games. The goal came off a free hit at the top of the Towson crease: Junior defender Lauren Gallaby passed to junior midfielder Shelby Samperton, who dished off to Quinn finishing the bang-bang play.
“That’s what Jessica was recruited to do. She was brought here to score goals,” said Head Coach Laurie Carroll.
Play quickly returned to the Hoyas’ end and senior goalkeeper Jessica Herring was forced to make big saves. Her gem of the half came off a Towson corner in the 17th minute that Herring deftly kicked aside.
The Towson attack was persistent, gaining six corners in the first half to the Hoyas’ one. Despite the barrage of Towson offense in the first half, the Hoyas played excellent team defense led by the trio of Gallaby, junior defender Nora Mirando and sophomore defender Meghan Leahey.
“We kept it organized and played great recovery defense to not get beat on the lost balls,” said Herring. “We know our defense is one of the best.”
The most effective offense for the Hoyas was their counterattack. The defense clamped down around the crease on the Towson offense and quickly moved the Hoyas’ attack down the sides of the field.
“We knew their strength was in the middle so the plan was to play the sides to gain possession,” said Carroll.
The Hoyas stuck to the plan exactly and created another scoring chance for Quinn in the 23rd minute, but she was taken down in the crease after splitting two Towson defenders. Gallaby put in the penalty stroke for her first tally of the season.
The play again moved back to the Hoyas’ defensive zone for the remainder of the half. One Towson offensive led to four successive corners that the Hoyas had to stave off. Spectacular net minding by Herring and stingy defense kept Towson from notching a goal.
“We tried to disrupt their passing lanes and it worked effectively,” said Carroll.
The Hoyas produced several scoring chances on the counterattack including one unlucky shot off the post. With three minutes remaining in the half, the Hoyas struck again off of a perfectly executed clear down the left side of the field. The ball was collected by Quinn at midfield and taken straight up the Towson gut through the Tigers’ helpless defense for her second goal of the game and team-leading sixth of the season. The half ended with the Hoyas up 3-0.
To start the second half, Towson came back with renewed energy and caught the lagging Hoyas off guard. Five minutes into the period, the Tigers scored off of a cross through the crease. It was the first goal scored against Herring in an 182-minute span including two shutouts. Four minutes later the Tigers struck again off of a corner that led to a long shot from the top of the crease. The momentum had shifted quickly and the Hoyas suddenly found themselves in a close contest.
Just two minutes later, Samperton drew a foul in the Towson end setting up a free hit. Samperton’s hard pass deflected off the keeper right to the stick of junior forward Leeanne Rizzo, who put it away for her second goal of the year. The Hoyas evened the game out toward the end and played the Tigers in the midfield for most of the second half. In the 51st minute, Samperton sealed the game with her first goal of the season.
“We were real concerned with playing the ball to the side and it worked out well,” said Samperton.
The Tigers’ attack in the final minutes was consistently turned away by the Hoyas as they held on for the victory.
“I was most proud of this team [when the score was] 3-2,” said Carroll. “There was a little lag to start the half, but they pulled it together.”
“We were so relaxed, so confident, so poised,” said Herring.
The team has built some much-needed confidence for its upcoming home game on Thursday at 3:30 p.m. against No.14 Cal-Berkeley.
“Cal will force us to raise the bar,” said Carroll. “We can’t give Cal the opportunities like we did today.”
“We can’t lag against Cal,” said Herring, referring to the letdown that plagued the Hoyas at the start of the second half. “We need to earn some respect.”
