Field Hockey Struggles in Patriot League Play

 

The Colgate field hockey team struggled over the break, losing its first and second Patriot League tilts to Lafayette and Lehigh 0-5 and 1-2, respectively. It was not all bad news, however, as the Raiders pulled off a 1-0 victory over Cornell in Ithaca.

Comfortable within the gates of Tyler’s Field, the Colgate team anticipated a con­trolled game against Lafayette, but that is not what it got. Lafayette maintained pos­session of the ball for the great majority of the first half and outshot the Raiders 17-0 with nine corners. Although Col­gate kept its opponents to only one goal, it was clear that they were struggling to stay alive.

Lafayette came out strong in the sec­ond half, scoring four more goals and Col­gate was unable to come back. The game ended in a disappointing 5-0 shutout for the Leopards.

The Raiders were back on track to face off against Cornell. They were so ready, in fact, that they not only shut out the Big Red, but they prevented them from even taking a shot on goal for the entire game. Colgate took the first penalty corner of the game with twenty minutes remaining in the first half that resulted in the one and only goal of the competition. Junior Adri­ana Libutti passed the ball to classmate Kendall Zaharris who gave junior midfield­er Lauren Dittman a chance to find the net. Libutti and Zaharris both recorded assists on the play.

The second half was less controlled, but Colgate continued to dominate. The Raid­ers earned two penalty corners and the overall shot advantage was Colgate’s at a 7-6 count.

Unforunately, the Raiders would not be able to maintain their momentum in the game against Lehigh. Despite first-year Amanda DiDomizio’s nine saves, the team was unable to push through and the Mountain Hawks walked away with a 2-1 win.

Lehigh drew first blood when they scored off a penalty corner only six minutes into the game. The Mountain Hawks saw three oppor­tunities with shots on goal during the corner and DiDomizio was able to defend only two of the three. Colgate fought back and scored their only goal of the game with 13:25 remain­ing in the opening half when first-year Eliana Brown scored her second goal of the season off an assist from senior Peyton Hawkins. The team continued to put the pressure on Lehigh and recorded six shots on goal in the final ten minutes of play, but it was not enough to gain the lead and the Raiders went into halftime tied at one with their opponent.

Both teams played hard in the second half, but Lehigh was once again able to take the lead when they scored on a penalty cor­ner with 14:34 remaining in the game. Col­gate struggled to catch the Mountain Hawks and they dropped the competition in a final 2-1 decision.

The Raiders travel to Washington, D.C. this Saturday to face off against nationally-ranked American University at noon.

Contact Jaime Heilbron at [email protected].