The field hockey team had a wild week between midterms and Fall break during which they squared off against Holy Cross and Cornell on the road and took on Bucknell at home.

Traveling to face the Crusaders on October 6, the Raiders hoped to collect their first Patriot League win of the season. For nearly the entire first half, the game remained scoreless. Finally, at 31:42, a pass from senior Natali Plesniarski found junior Laura Flisnik who directed it into the cage.

13 minutes into the second half, Holy Cross answered the goal when a break away turned into a pass and shoot. However, Colgate was determined to win, and at 59:44, sophomore Mika Ella-Tang scored from the low right corner.

The goal was the last of the game and led the Raiders to a 2-1 win.

“We definitely didn’t play to the best of our ability, but in spite of that we fought till the end,” said Ella-Tang. “It was great to see that none of us were going to leave without a win and we fought so hard to ensure that.”

On October 10, the Raiders traveled to Ithaca with hopes of a win. Though Cornell got on the board first with a goal at 15:51, Colgate junior Lauren Carey followed closely by evening the score. The goal came off a penalty corner at 19:12.

After remaining tied through the half, just eight minutes after play resumed Senior Lauren Remkus put Colgate up 2-1 by grabbing a rebound off of a shot by junior Amanda Gilmore.

A penalty corner at 51:13 gave Cornell its second, and final, score of the game.

Sophomore Katelyn Nerbonne found one more shot rebound with just under four minutes leftto secure the Raider victory.

While the win against Big Red was impressive, the true story of the week was Saturday’s game against Bucknell. The Bison came to Tyler’s Field looking for their first Patriot League win, having fared 0-2 against previous league opponents.

Throughout the first half, the game appeared to belong to the Raiders. However, the score remained tied at 0-0. At 27:40, sophomore Raider goalie Sarah Pedersen was led out of the box to make a block, but Bucknell’s Kelly Hoffman was waiting to pick up the rebound. Four minutes later, a rebound off a failed Bucknell penalty corner was sent to the cage by Chyncia Smith. At the half it was the Bison in the lead, 2-0.

The start of the second didn’t show much improvement for Colgate as Bucknell’s Morgan Kauffman sank another shot at 36:37 to give the Bison a 3-0 lead.

“We need to work on putting the ball in the net when we are dominating play, to put the other team in a hole,” Carey said. “Bucknell didn’t take a step across the 50-yard line for twenty minutes in the first half and yet they scored first.”

The Raiders found the cage when Carey sank a shot off a penalty corner fed to her by junior Maddie Watrobski and Plesniarski. Colgate continued its comeback when Flisnik fed an assist to Nerbonne. But with time running out, the ladies still needed one more goal to force overtime.

Finally, with five minutes to play, the Raiders were awarded a penalty corner. Flisnik’s shot was knocked into the air, but first-year Laura Denenga knocked it into the cage. But the officials recalled the goal, giving Colgate another penalty corner. This time around, Flisnik’s attempt stayed on the ground. however, Denenga knocked it into the goal.

With the score tied 3-3 at the buzzer, the game proceeded into overtime.

“We were all just thinking we had worked too hard to get to overtime, we couldn’t walk away with a loss,” Nerbonne said. “Any time the ball was around the goalie we were doing anything we could to force it in, and luckily our pressure lead to a quick goal.”

It was after only 2:42 of additional play that Nerbonne took a great shot towards the goal. Despite that shot being blocked, she grabbed the rebound and sent it straight into the cage.

The 4-3 victory for Colgate raised their record in the Patriot League to 2-1. Saturday’s game against Lafayette is the last for the ladies at Tyler’s Field. It will also be Senior Day. Come out at 11:00 a.m. to cheer on the Raiders as they continue their quest for a Patriot League championship.