It was a tough weekend for the Colgate field hockey team as they dropped consecutive decisions away from home, first to Rider, 5-0, and then 5-1 to Monmouth.

Against Rider on Saturday, senior captain Kirsten Lalli played a remarkable game in goal, making 21 saves, showing the defensive struggle Colgate had to face throughout the game. Within the first ten minutes, Rider had netted four goals.

After halftime, the Raider defense came out with a newfound strength, holding the game scoreless until just before the final whistle, when Rider was awarded a penalty which they used to score their fifth and final goal. In total, Rider outshot Colgate 34-4, and took 19 penalty corner shots to Colgate’s two.

“We didn’t adjust well enough to the playing surface or to the scrappier, more aggressive style of play that Rider has,” Lalli commented. “As a result we didn’t do a good job of possessing the ball to generate offense.”

On Sunday, Colgate found itself facing another explosion of offense in its game against Monmouth.

Although senior Laura Denenga netted her third goal of the season, with sophomores Adrianna Libutti and Kendall Zaharris each racking up assists, it was not enough to match the offensive prowess of Monmouth.

Monmouth took the early lead, four minutes in, with Denenga’s goal leveling the score two minutes later. By the half, however, Monmouth had added their second, a lead which they would not relinquish. Three second-half goals gave the Hawks a four-goal advantage, a lead they carried to the end of the game.

“We held our own in the first half and struggled in the second half,” Head Coach Cathy Foto said of the team’s performance against Monmouth. “Right now we are only managing to put together one good half, so we need to work on being more confident and poised for 70 minutes.”

“We are lucky to have a hard working group and we have seen little improvements from each game,” Coach Foto added. “We are confident that all the little things that are changing will make a difference as we get more games under

our belts.”

After this weekend’s games on the road, the team is 1-3. The Raiders will be back in action this coming weekend when they travel to New Haven, CT to take on the Yale Bulldogs. The day after, the Raiders will travel to Hamden, CT for a faceoff with Quinnipiac.

“Our goal is to qualify for our league’s playoff tournament, but in order to do so we need to be more disciplined and keep scoring,” Lalli said, looking ahead to the rest of the season.