Most athletes, including myself, come in with a perfect image of what it means to be a Division I athlete. I committed in the fall of my junior year to Penn field hockey as a goalkeeper. Unfortunately, the experience that I endured was something so unexpected and disheartening that still, to this day, it's hard to accept.

Sure, it’s early. Five months early, to be exact. But if last weekend was any indication, take the over on any 2017 Penn field hockey betting odds.

It hurts to lose. For all Quakers sports, it hurts to fall to the Tigers. A loss to Princeton hurts no team more than Penn field hockey.

As the season winds down to its final game, the week has been the last of 2016 for Penn field hockey.

Football’s Sam Philippi, men’s soccer’s Dami Omitaomu, and field hockey’s Alexa Hoover were all recognized for spectacular performances that propelled their respective teams to victories this past week.

It happens all the time in the movies: the hero achieves the ultimate triumph for her team when all else seemed lost.

Gut check. After enduring a heartbreaking 3-2 overtime loss to Ivy foe Yale this past Saturday, Penn Field Hockey (10-5, 3-2 Ivy) took down crosstown rival Villanova in dramatic fashion on Tuesday night, cementing a 5-0 record against Philadelphia-area schools this season. The Quakers did not get off to the start they wanted; the Wildcats scored a goal in both the 32nd and 33rd minutes of play to take a sudden 2-0 lead.

For the second straight game, the Quakers (9-5, 3-2 Ivy) overcame a 2-0 deficit to take the game past regulation only to fall to an overtime winner and be sent home with a loss.

Penn is locked in for its last crucial stretch of the season. Penn (9-4, 3-1 Ivy) is looking forward to the final week of Ivy League play, with upcoming matchups against Yale (5-8,1-3), Brown (6-6, 2-2), and Princeton (9-5, 4-0). Penn snapped its three game winning streak, with a tough double overtime loss to eighth nationally ranked Delaware 3-2 on Sunday.

The articles all read the same. The offense gets the glory and the keeper gets a shout out for a great save. But what about the defense?

Down an early goal, it seemed as though Penn would suffer another heart-wrenching loss to Columbia.

Want to beat the Penn field hockey team? That’ll take something that hasn’t been done for the last 157 minutes and 34 seconds: a goal against Liz Mata. This coming Friday, the Red and Blue (8-3, 2-1) will host the rivals Columbia (6-5, 1-2), before they travel to face off against Delaware in a nonconference bout on Sunday.

In most team sports, there’s no individual accolade as prestigious as the goal-scoring record. Penn field hockey’s Alexa Hoover, the Quakers’ star attack from Collegeville, P.A., knows quite a bit about that, having broken the record halfway through her junior season.

Trying to score against the Quakers this week? Good luck. Penn field hockey defeated Dartmouth and Temple, both in shutouts, this weekend.

Penn field hockey’s senior captains, Elise Tilton and Claire Kneizys, made it to Penn in very different ways. But now that they’re here, they have one key similarity: an unmatched drive to lead the Quakers to their first Ivy League title since 2004.

The season is only halfway done for Penn field hockey but already we have seen records broken, overtime thrillers, and major positional changes.

There was a strong overcast over Ellen Vagelos Field as Penn field hockey squared off with Harvard, an apt metaphor for the stubborn opposition that the Quakers faced on the field. In what ended up as an unfortunate 3-2 loss in double-overtime for the Red and Blue (6-3, 1-1 Ivy), there were many points where the home side showed little sign of being able to surmount the 2-0 lead from its Boston rivals. The Crimson (6-4, 2-0) went up by one 25 minutes into the first half after a shot off a corner found its way past junior goalie Liz Mata.