By: Katie Zigelman, News Staff
Despite junior forward Crystal Poland’s third hat trick of the season last Friday, the Huskies came out 0-2 after their first games in conference play this past weekend. The team lost an away game 6-2 to undefeated Old Dominion Sunday after a 4-3 loss to William and Mary on Friday.
Old Dominion got the jump early in Sunday’s game when Maartje Van Rijswijk shot and scored just 4:22 into the game. Poland responded two minutes later with a shot off of a penalty corner, which was set up by junior forward Nicky Graham and senior forward Crystal Poland. Both of these girls are ranked nationally in the top 10 for assists, with 10 so far this season.
Old Dominion scored four more goals in the first half, entering the second 5-1. The second half of the game was 1-1 for the teams as senior midfielder Pam Aldridge scored the last goal of the game at 51:40 off of a steal.
Junior goalkeeper Lizzie Priest made nine saves throughout the game compared to Old Dominion goalkeeper Devon Seifert’s three.
Redshirt freshman back Kaci Coveleski said that playing against Old Dominion was a challenge to the team, albiet a challenge that was met successfully.
“We were able to compete with them, especially in the second half,” Coveleski said. “Although we made some mistakes, we still had great moments in the game where our level of play was equal, if not more, to ODU’s.”
Head coach Cheryl Murtagh also said the team is able to compete at the same level as Old Dominion and did at moments, though it was not enough.
Friday’s game against William and Mary started great for the Huskies who had a 2-0 lead going into halftime. Poland scored both goals in the first half; the first one, which was set up by Graham and Malloy, just 1:41 into the game. Poland scored her second goal at 20:27. Both Malloy and senior midfielder Kaela Barker assisted.
Poland’s third goal wasn’t until 60:06 after William and Mary scored four of their own goals. Poland shot off of a penalty stroke to find the net. The final decision was 4-3 in favor of the Tribe.
Both goalkeepers made seven stops each.
Murtagh was disappointed with a loss against William and Mary especially with a 2-0 lead going into the second half.
“Being on the road is tough but these are the games that we need to win,” Murtagh said.
The Huskies are now 5-5 in season and 0-2 in conference play. They are getting ready to start a five-game home stand tomorrow against James Madison University (JMU).
After nine games on the road the Huskies are excited to be back home Murtagh said.
“We showed we had the ability to play with tenacity together as a team [last weekend] so we want to continue with that in our next two games,” Coveleski said. “Our plan is to come out of our conference play 2-2 by beating JMU and VCU this weekend.”
Murtagh is also positive going into the next couple of games.
“We are definitely looking forward to them” Murtagh said. “We know we can compete and we need to show it.”
James Madison is currently 4-4 and fresh off of a 1-0 win Sunday over Towson University. Last year’s game between the Huskies and the Duke ended in a 4-1 decision in favor of the Duke.
Following tomorrow’s game against James Madison, the Huskies will play the Virginia Commonwealth Rams Sunday at Sweeney Field.
