By Katherine Harris
Contributing Writer
The women’s field hockey team finished the year strong last weekend in the Patriot League Tournament, pulling off an upset of No. 1 American in the semifinals, before falling short in the finals against Lafayette.
The Bison started their postseason play last Friday as the fourth seed in the tournament, setting them up to play top seeded American. Even though the squad knew it would be a tough match, they were still confident, especially against the Patriot League rival they had already ousted earlier in the year.
The Orange and Blue did not disappoint, coming away with a strong 3-2 win in the contest. All three of the team’s goals came from penalty corner kicks and defender Tayler Siegrist ’13 netted two of the team’s three goals for the first multi-goal performance of her career. In net, goalkeeper Erica Perrine ’14 came up with some key saves to help propel her team to victory.
“We were incredibly happy with our team’s performance; beating American twice in the same year was quite an accomplishment,” head coach Jeremy Cook said. “I felt that one of the special things about this team is that they really did improve every minute that we spent on the field this year.”
Feeding off the momentum of their upset, the Bison challenged No. 2 Lafayette for the Patriot League title on Sunday, losing 3-1. Perrine held the Leopards scoreless for almost the entire first half and forward Mallory Smith ’12 led a comeback attempt with a goal early in the second half, but the Orange and Blue were still down when the final whistle blew.
While never happy with a loss, the Bison were proud of their performances in both matches and what they mean for the team in the years to come.
“Losing in the finals is something that is definitely heartbreaking, but the pain is a little lessened by the team’s performance in both the semifinals and final matches this weekend,” Perrine said. “Our team dethroned one of the biggest field hockey empires by knocking American out of the running for the League title, and that is a victory in its own way. In both games, the entire team left everything on the field and played for each other, so I think that there is little to regret as our season ended, other than the fact that the game wasn’t another 10 minutes longer.”