The ladies of the Colgate field hockey team hit the road this week with high hopes of rebounding from last week’s losses.

Last Saturday, Colgate traveled to Pennsylvania to face West Chester, a team the ladies had not beaten in the previous three seasons. Three minutes into the game, the Raiders found the net as senior Lauren Remkus passed the ball to junior Amanda Gilmore, who moved in for the goal. It was Gilmore’s first of the season.

“Throughout the entire game, the pressure was on them,” Gilmore said. “We were never in a situation where we needed to score to stay in the game since we were able to come out in the first few minutes and get on the scoreboard.”

Colgate found the net once more that half at 28:35. Junior Lauren Carey grabbed her fifth goal of the season off a pass from first-year Laura Denenga.

Despite being outshot 17-7, Colgate went on to clinch the victory over the Golden Rams. Sophomore goalkeeper Sarah Pedersen earned her third shutout of the season. One more Pedersen goose egg will give her Colgate’s single-season shut out record. She will most likely accomplish this feat since there are six regular season matches left before the Patriot League Tournament.

“It feels good to have shutouts personally, but I know the shutouts are far more of a reflection of the team’s defense than my performance,” Pedersen said.”I am far more excited about how many wins our team has this year than the actual shutouts.”

With a win behind them, Colgate moved on to face Princeton the next day. This time around, it was Colgate who was shut out, falling 5-0.

Princeton found the net three times in the first half after two Tina Bortz goals at 17:38 and 25:39. Two minutes later, Kristin Schwab found the net off a corner. The Tigers led 3-0 at the break.

The second half looked like a carbon copy of the first, as Princeton’s Leah Hoagland scored two minutes into the second frame. The final goal of the game came at 59:02, when Katherine Cape netted a deflected shot.

Juniors Kaley Zaharris and Lauren Carey each made one defensive save. Classmate Laura Flisnick tallied three shots on goal, leading the Raiders’ offensive effort.

When entering Patriot League play a year ago, Colgate’s record was 2-6. In fact, the Raiders(5-5) have already surpassed last year’s win total of four games, which is a testament to their vast improvement on the field.

“One of our greatest improvements is our defense all over the field,” Gilmore said. “Our forwards and midfielders are doing a great job of putting pressure onother teams high up in their defense territory which makes it very easy to capitalize on even the smallest mistake made by their defense.”

Also, with Pedersen in the net, the Raiders have a great chance to improve on their record even further and make a deep run in the Patriot League tournament.

“The team looks more fluid and in control on the field [than last year],” Pedersen said.”We also play with the expectation of winning all of our games, a trait which we lacked last year.”

Hopefully, the expectation will pay off as the ladies open Patriot League play this weekend. The Raiders continue their road trip on Saturday when they go to our nation’s capitol to play No. 12 American University, last year’s Patriot League champions.