Field Hockey: Hung out to dry

The Penn field hockey team seemingly outplayed St. Joseph's last night, especially in the second half.

The Quakers led in shots (14-10, including 8-2 after the break), corners (8-4, including 5-1 in the second frame) and assists.

The Hawks won the only statistical battle that mattered. They pulled out a tough 2-1 victory behind 10 saves from senior goalkeeper Rebecca Cunfer.

"A loss is a loss, but nonethless we're improving," midfielder Margaretha Ehert said.

The first half saw all of the scoring for both the Quakers (0-3) and the Hawks (1-2).

Despite pinning the ball in their opponents' zone for a large majority of the first five minutes of the game, the Quakers were the first to concede a goal. Off of a pass from freshmen Jen Wrublesky, St. Joe's Theresa Barbati took a shot just under seven minutes into the game that somehow passed through the defense, and barely trickled into the goal.

The Quakers responded with a goal 10 minutes later, as Ehret scored off of a penalty corner and seniors Meghan Rose and Jamie Callahan both earned an assist. It was Ehert's team-leading second goal and fifth point of the season.

The tie would be short-lived, as St. Joe's junior Marisa Pizzi scored less than 90 seconds later.

But this goal was not without a controversy. It appeared that Pizzi shot the ball before it came to a complete stop, which would be illegal. However, the refs did not believe so, and the Hawks took the lead for good.

It didn't register on the scoreboard, but the Quakers played a better second frame.

"We couldn't have played a harder, better half without scoring," coach Val Cloud said. "The ball just didn't want to get in [the goal]. I think it was frustrating that we gave up two bad first half goals."

"What I'm really happy about is that that's the way we should be playing," Cloud said. "I'm going to take that half . This is the kind of hockey I want to see them play.

Senior midfielder Nicole Black agreed.

"We really controlled the second half and came out real strong," Black said. "We're connecting much better on the field than we have so far. . Plus, they got a couple of lucky goals."

Ehret and Black took charge of a vibrant Red and Blue offense last night.

Black added three shots to the team's tally and Ehret kept firing away at Cunfer, logging seven shots.

But Cunfer, a four-year veteran in goal, wasn't fazed.

She made one diving save after another, and by the time the night was over, her 10 saves were more than double her career average of 4.65 per contest.

Cunfer was the main reason Penn is still winless on the season.

And with the first Ivy League matchup this weekend against Harvard, the team is out of games to get adjusted and use as learning experiences. Harvard has also been a tough nut to crack in recent years.

Cloud did see flashes of her second-place Ivy team from a year ago - just too late in the game.

"Hopefully we can take this second half with us to Harvard."

And forget the first.

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