Jared Berg
Contributing Writer
After an 0-2 start to the season in two difficult road games in upstate New York, the Fighting Scots field hockey team returned to Wooster for three well played home games. Recognizing the opportunity to jumpstart their season, the Scots won two out of their three matches.
“Having the opportunity to have so many home games in a row was great because it allowed us to claim our field and play with a degree of comfort that away fields don’t provide,” said Captain Anjela Galimberti ’16. “We take pride in our home turf and we loved the support we got from our family and friends as well.”
The week started with an important 2-1 win over Ohio Wesleyan to notch the first win of the season. After jumping in front within ten minutes of the start with a goal from Kayla O’Connor ’17, the Battling Bishops hit back to deadlock; the game was at one a piece at halftime.
After weathering a spell of pressure late in the game, the Scots delivered on a late penalty corner as Galimberti found a crucial goal off a well-placed pass from Kerry O’Connor ’16 to seal the Scots’ first victory of the year. Also highlighting the well-fought team performance was goalkeeper Carrie Mount ’15 who blocked a game-high five shots.
Galimberti echoed the importance of picking up this first win, saying it was “huge because it was our first conference game against a team who we will compete with for a spot in the conference final four,” referring to the NCAC tournament held in early November. Last year, the Scots qualified for the tournament before falling to national powerhouse DePauw. This year, the Scots look to improve on this performance and reach the tournament once again.
The Scots had an opportunity to show their class to another conference opponent on Saturday, but fell just short in a close 2-1 defeat against arch-rivals Wittenberg. Wooster dominated the ball early in the game and kept strong control of the ball throughout. Taylor Thorpe ’15 , last season’s leading goalscorer capitialized on one of the many opportunities. Her well-placed shot beat Wittenberg’s goalkeeper to give the Scots an early lead and Thorpe her first goal of the season.
Despite a few crucial opportunities to extend its lead, Wittenberg’s defense weathered a well-played half from Wooster to keep the score at 1-0 heading into the break. In the second half, the Tigers quickly reversed the momentum. After multiple shots on goal, Wittenberg found its equalizer a mere three minutes into the half. 11 minutes later, the Tigers completed an impressive attack with a well-taken goal that Wooster could do little about.
With a barrage of penalty corners, the Scots inched closer to an equalizer, the closest effort sailing just wide of the post. Unfortunately, it wasn’t meant to be, and the Scots fell 2-1.
The Scots rebounded the very next day with a resounding 3-0 win over visiting Transylvania University. With a well-balanced effort offensively and defensively, Wooster turned in its best result of the season so far. Playing with noticeable purpose, the Scots pressured throughout the first half.
The opposition defense stood strong until a breakthrough in the 20th minute when Thorpe gave the Scots a lead she would double only minutes later. Both tallies were impressive team goals. The first came from Shelby Stone ’15, who sent a clever pass into the circle, which was controlled by Kayla O’Connor before Thorpe finished the play with the game’s first goal. The second came off of a brilliantly weighted through ball from Leah Prescott ’17 that allowed Thorpe to break away from the defense and beat the keeper.
Soon after the half-time interval, Kerry O’Connor scored her first goal of the season from a well-worked move following a penalty corner to all but seal the result. The Scots’ defense enjoyed a trademark afternoon, with goalkeeper Mount collecting her second career shutout, helped by the effort of defenders such as Emily Dean-McKinney ’16, who saved the shut-out with a clutch defensive save to thwart a prime Transylvania opportunity.
“Moving forward we would like to continue doing the things that are working well for us and work on fixing the details,” said Galimberti.
Isabel Perman ’16 echoed these sentiments, “Right now we have a losing record but a good platform in our conference … Sometimes it is a good thing to be below .500, it pushes you to want to win so much more.”
The Scots (2-3) traveled to Washington and Jefferson (5-1) Wednesday after press time, ahead of a weekend trip to Indiana with matches against both Earlham College and DePauw University.