Medical Bills: Hat-trick hero injured at Yale

Penn field hockey star Leah Bills will miss the rest of the season. Her hat trick landed the Penn field hockey team its first Ivy League win of the season. What happened after the game, however, was definitely not a first for the Quakers. Senior co-captain Leah Bills gave perhaps the greatest field hockey performance of her career. Bills, who leads the Quakers with nine goals and 19 points, scored not one or two, but all three of her team's goals in Penn's 3-2 victory at Yale this past Saturday. What will remain ingrained in her memory, however, is not the three goals but what happened at the final whistle. In the last seconds of the game, Yale continued to fight for one last shot on cage. With five seconds on the clock Penn won that fight and gained final possession. Bills fired the free hit down towards the opposing goal cage and the team knew it was all over. They had won their first Ivy game. Bills, jumping in the air, celebrated like any athlete. Unlike other athletes, however, she was punished in the worst way for her excitement. "She was very excited after we won, jumped in the air, fell and tore her Achilles' tendon," Penn coach Val Cloud said. "When the game was over, I ran off the field, the whole team was in a huddle, then I turn around and Leah was laying in the middle of the field with the trainer," said senior co-captain Maureen Flynn, who shattered her middle finger in an attempt to save a shot during the Penn State game. Although the news of Bills' injury is tragic, it is hardly surprising coming from the 1999 Penn field hockey team. Just last Thursday, one of the Quakers' star defenders, senior Brooke Jenkins, underwent her third career ACL surgery. Jenkins tore her left ACL when Stanford visited Penn two Saturdays ago. Prior to Jenkins' fall, Flynn, who plays with a brace from a former ACL surgery, shattered her finger. Flynn's misfortune, however has not impeded her from playing in the starting lineup. Just one game before Flynn's injury, junior defender Lauren Cornew broke her thumb in the Temple game. Cornew also continued to play but then broke another part of her thumb during the Yale game. Before Cornew, senior forward Courtney Martin broke her finger in the first game of the season. The list, sadly enough, goes on. By some sick twist of fate, the Quakers have been prone to a slew of injuries that has sidelined two of Penn's most threatening players. Like Jenkins' torn ACL, Bills' excruciating tear added her name to the Quakers' continually growing list of casualties. Bills' hat trick is certainly no comfort to the fact that her college career has been cut two games short. But if she had to pick one game on which to end her season, the Yale game would definitely have been a good one. It was the game that "got the big egg off the Ivy record," Cloud said. At the 12:11 mark, Bills opened Saturday's scoring with an unassisted goal. Determined not to land a last-place slot on the Ivy standings this week, the Elis rallied as Erin Arruda and Christine Anthony gave Yale a 2-1 lead with back-to-back goals in just under two minutes. The Elis sustained their lead for only a mere 30 seconds before Bills, assisted by senior defender Jen Murray and freshman Kylee Jakobowski, struck again. At the 4:28 mark the two teams were tied 2-2 and would remain so until the half. Whatever Cloud said during halftime, however, worked. The Quakers, despite being outshot 19-10 and giving Yale a 16-9 advantage in penalty corners, shut out the Elis in the second half. Junior goalie Alison Friedman ended the game with a remarkable 18 saves. The defensive line -- Murray, Cornew, junior Amna Nawaz and sophomore Monique Horshaw -- played exceptionally well. Although Yale possessed the ball more than Penn, the battle with the Quakers' defense was one that Yale just couldn't win. "Penn State had 21 shots on us and they scored eight goals," Flynn said. "To have 19 shots against you and only two go in, it shows how much pressure our defense put on Yale." In addition to the defense putting on an exceptional show, the attack capitalized perfectly on its corner opportunities. Murray put the final touches on the game when she, along with Jakobowski, assisted Bills' game-winning tally at 29:10 off a penalty corner. "What can I tell you, it was very exciting to win one," Cloud said. Traveling to West Chester today, the Quakers want to keep the excitement high. Today's game will be about "the goals we're going to get and the ones we're not going to give up," Cloud said. The Quakers biggest road block today will be playing on grass as opposed to their home turf field. Yale, however, was a grass facility and the Red and Blue fared well on the unfamiliar territory. According to Cloud, however, the Elis' field is in great shape, which makes for a fast turf-like game. West Chester's field, on the other hand, is not fast. "[The grass] is a definite advantage to [West Chester]," Cloud said. "But we should have some confidence, knowing that we won on grass." Perhaps the Quakers' confidence from Saturday will carry over into the last away game of the season. "I think we'll adjust fine to the grass," Flynn said. "It is still going to be a tough game. They are always a competitive game. Last year we won 1-0, the year before that we won 1-0 in overtime and my freshman year we lost 3-2." With Penn's high scorer undergoing surgery for her Achilles' tendon today and one of their top defenders recovering from her Thursday surgery, the Quakers must quickly adjust to the grass in order to fully concentrate on capitalizing on scoring and preventing the Golden Rams from netting a few in the cage. If nothing else, perhaps Cloud can use the unfortunate slew of injuries to inspire her team to win one for the sidelined seniors.