Overtime loss to Hofstra hurts field hockey’s chance of postseason play in CAA | The Triangle

Overtime loss to Hofstra hurts field hockey’s chance of postseason play in CAA

Photo courtesy Drexeldragons.com
Photo courtesy Drexeldragons.com

The Drexel University field hockey team lost a tough match against Hofstra University Oct. 26. This loss came after another tough loss to campus rival, the University of Pennsylvania. The Dragons played hard and made the game interesting by forcing overtime, but unfortunately could not hold on. Hofstra is another Colonial Athletic Association opponent, and it would have been helpful to the Dragons postseason hopes to win this matchup.

The game opened in exciting fashion as Hofstra came out firing. The Pride took the first shot of the game, but missed wide. The Dragons answered back with a penalty corner, which lead to a shot, which was then blocked. Idrienne Walker followed the miss, but again was blocked by the Hofstra goalkeeper. It was good to see the Dragons playing so aggressively: this is something they have been inconsistent with for the entire year. Drexel has the tools to score, but there are some days where the team simply does not use them.

The Pride scored the first goal of the day off of a penalty corner at the 14:32 mark. Down 1-0, the Dragons made sure to keep the game close and manageable. This team has frequently made great defensive efforts this season and this game was no exception. The lady Dragons continued to play aggressive offense. At the 22 minutes mark Drexel made another push to score, but again they were unable to find the back of the net.

Just four minutes before the end of the first half, Hofstra notched another goal making the score 2-0. Although the Dragons were down by two goals, they have had a special ability to make adjustments and turn the second half around in their favor. This is exactly what they did. Two minutes into the second half, The Dragons were able to score as Lauren Hibshman notched a penalty stroke goal to make the game 2-1.

The Dragons needed to focus on their defense in this second half. The offense was just now beginning to warm up, and if the defense could hold Hofstra then there was the chance of tying or winning at the end of the second half.

Drexel found the back of the goal one more time in the second, at the 53:42 mark. Alison McCardell scored off of an assist from Lindsay Boerner to tie the game at two. The match was hard fought throughout the rest of the second half, and the Drexel defense only allowed Hofstra to get a shot on goal once in the second half.

Overtime unfortunately ended just as quickly as it had started. At just 1:50 into play, Hofstra was able to score and end the game at 3-2. This was certainly a devastating loss because the Dragons were looking to go 3-1 in their conference, and now reside at 2-2. The Dragons, however, played with great heart and passion. Hofstra is a very good team standing at 13-4, for Drexel to play them the way they did is very impressive and should not be an oversight.

Drexel will host No. 14 Delaware University and Towson University this weekend to round out the rest of the regular season. These matches are both in conference, so look for the Dragons to play extremely hard to try and finish the season with two big wins.