Greetings from the Hilltop! I hope this finds you doing well and enjoying this beautiful fall weather. We spent this past weekend both on the road and at home, playing at Villanova on Friday night and at home against Colgate on Sunday afternoon.
 
We departed campus midday on Friday and headed north to Philadelphia for a 2:30 p.m.walk thru at Villanova. After our walk through, we found a local Panera where we had a pre-game meal and our players had some time to study and get school work done. We headed back to Villanova for a 7 p.m. matchup against the Wildcats. The matchup was fairly even, we struck first on a time expired corner at the end of the first half and went into halftime up 1-0. About ten minutes into the second half, Villanova scored to tie the match at one all. We withstood a significant amount of pressure in the middle of the second half and did not give up a single goal off of penalty corners. We had our chances in our attacking end, earning several corners in the last few minutes of regulation, but couldn’t manage to seal the deal, sending the game into overtime.
 
We spent a significant amount of time in Villanova’s circle, earning four penalty corners that we just couldn’t convert.  Villanova took advantage of a breakaway situation and scored in the 79th minute to earn the win.
 
While the loss was upsetting, I am proud of the way our team played and carried themselves in an emotional setting against a team that always gives Georgetown their very best. We made significant strides in the Villanova match, out-cornering our opponent and actually taking shots in our attacking circle (18). 
 
Immediately following the game, we talked about how critical it was for us to build off of the positives of the Villanova match and use it to take steps forward in our match against Colgate on Sunday.
 
We hopped the bus and headed back to the Hilltop late Friday night, arriving back in DC early Saturday morning. Our players had the opportunity to sleep in on Saturdaymorning, cold-tubbed and partner stretched during the day and came back to McDonough for a scout and film session on Colgate Saturday late afternoon. After our classroom session, we headed out to MSF to run through some corners and called it a day.
 
Sunday morning came quickly as we met for corners on MSF at 10 a.m. and faced off against Colgate at 1 p.m.. We came out of the gates firing on all cylinders and set the tone early with a slew of attacking penalty corners, which is something we have struggled with in the past handful of games. The first goal came off of a penalty corner from junior Emily Weinberg, a little over ten minutes into the first half. About six minutes later, sophomore Aliyah Graves-Brown took a shot inside the circle to make the score 2-0 going into the second half. Two minutes into the second half, Emily Weinberg found the back of the net again, for her fifth goal of the season, making the score 3-0. We would have four more corners in the second half, but failed to convert.
 
For the first time this season, I felt as though our team played a full 70 minutes of team-oriented, possession-based, smart hockey. We’ve been working for weeks to see what we saw come together yesterday. We committed to the press defensively, chose to test the goalkeeper in our attacking circle and protected the ball well individually. Overall, we are proud of this group for building off of the positives from Friday night and taking steps forward.
 
This week will be another quick one, as we will prepare for #16 Temple at home on Friday at 1 p.m. We are excited about the opportunity to host them on MSF and look forward to the challenge.
 
Friday’s match is also our Alumni Game. We look forward to honoring the former Hoya Field Hockey players who have contributed to our program over the years. I look forward to seeing many of you at the match and if I haven’t had the opportunity to meet you in person, I very much look forward to doing so after the game.
 
As always, thank you to the friends and families that support our program both on the sidelines and from home, we are very appreciative of your support. As a staff, we talk about how fortunate we are to represent Georgetown Field Hockey and how much of a privilege it is to work with these 21 young women.  
 
Until next week!