The Colgate Women’s Field Hockey team tallied their first victory of the season last Sunday night with a dominant 5-0 win over St. Francis University.

Right from the onset, the Raiders moved the ball well and showed the team chemistry that had yet to manifest itself this season.

“Our offense started to click on Sunday,” senior midfielder and captain Katelyn Nerbonne said. “We really wanted to score a lot of goals and we were able to create a lot of breakaways and shots on net.”

Under the leadership of Nerbonne, the Raiders were finally able to generate offense. The corner hitting crew put on a clinic, as junior midfielder Lauren Denenga buried shots behind a diving St. Francis keeper in the eighteenth and twentieth minutes.

“Our corners are finally starting to click,” Nerbonne said. “We’ve been working really hard over the past couple of weeks on our corners and it finally paid off.”

Besides being an active member in the corner hitting crew, Nerbonne also netted two goals on the day. Nerbonne’s first goal came in the fourteenth minute when she received a through pass and slid the ball into the lower left-hand corner. Her second goal, however, was sheer artistry as she wove through four defenders and slapped it by St. Francis senior goalkeeper Sara Dittmann.

The final goal came from first-year Courtney Burke, whose goal was a product of yet another corner hit. Burke had plenty to celebrate, earning both her first career win and her first career goal.

This victory is a great starting point for the Raiders. In just a few short weeks, this battle-tested team will begin Patriot League play. For the Raider’s to reach their preseason goal of making postseason play, they will need to continue to play their usual hard-nosed defense and build off of their recent offensive resurgence.

“From this point forward we are going to need to see more competitive energy from every player at practice,” Head Coach Cathy Foto said. “We need to show more determination to be competitive out on the field and we need to have an attitude that says we are going to be hard to beat.”

With their commanding victory on Sunday, the women seem to be on exactly the right path to achieve a postseason berth.

The field hockey team will play their next match this coming Saturday at Bryant University. The game is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m.