On one of the fall season's first truly crisp nights, the women of the Penn field hockey team shivered on the Franklin Field sidelines, watching their teammates receive a similarly chilly reception on the field.
Saint Joseph's made sure that the Quakers' shots on goal fell cold, forcing the Red and Blue to swallow another tough defeat, 2-1, last night.
Though their overall record against the Hawks (3-1) stays above water at 9-6, the loss marked their third consecutive defeat against their crosstown rivals.
Coming into the game with what head coach Val Cloud called "mental involvement" and apparent confidence, the Quakers (1-2) kept up the tempo early, pressuring the Hawks' net. Senior Rachel Eng used fancy footwork to lay away an unassisted goal in the game's twentieth minute.
Where the Red and Blue had finesse, however, the Hawks had power. The Quakers' stick skills couldn't get them ahead of the ball on breakaways, and St. Joe's answered Eng's score swiftly.
"We would hit the ball down the field and then make mistakes," Cloud said. "We had plenty of opportunities and just couldn't score."
The Hawks' forwards, led by hard-hitting junior Kellie Walter, read the field sharply on inbounds and kept the Quakers just on their heels. She broke through a spotty Penn defense for an unassisted tally just seven minutes after Eng had put the Red and Blue on the board.
On a penalty corner two and a half minutes later, freshman Theresa Testa dumped it to Walter, who then sent a shot sailing over Penn keeper Alanna Butera for her second goal.
"Our defense was not playing well," said Cloud. "Especially at the end of the second half. We were getting crammed."
As for St. Joe's, Atlantic-10 goalie of the week Kelly Swanick hardly needed to prove her worth, as the Hawks kept Penn in its own 50 in the first half.
Butera's impressive saves rejuvenated the Red and Blue's play late in the game. On several occasions, the senior goalie came out to meet St. Joe's breakaways, making gambles that kept her team out of the hole.
"She gives us confidence and is a huge asset to us," Eng said.
But while the Quakers swarmed the opposing goal over the final five minutes, they couldn't muster a shot on goal (although one clunked off the post), let alone the tying goal.
Cloud and her players were able to take something out of the loss.
"We had a different team out there tonight that was playing together," the 12-year Penn coach said. "It was a real improvement from the weekend."
Eng added, "It was great competition. Our stick skills were very similar. [In the circle] we had the one, two move . it was just the third, the score, that was missing."
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