It was a long day under Lady Lion field hockey fire for Rutgers goalkeeper Jodi Deem during Penn State’s 2-0 victory over the Lady Knights yesterday.
Penn State did an excellent job of keeping the ball in Rutgers territory, but failed to capitalize on many scoring opportunities. The Lady Lions fired off 19 first half shots on goal, but only scored on one of them.
“Our team ‘D’ was excellent,” said defensive back Becca Main. “I feel that the defensive backs played the best yet.
“I would like to have seen us score more. It seems as if we are afraid to take chances, which holds us back. I think that if we took some chances, our game would be a lot better.”
“Our forwards are young,” said Coach Char Morett, “But it will come with experience. They had a good goalie, who used some different techniques, and we missed some key opportunities, but overall I was pleased.”
Rutgers’ Deem felt the Lady Knights could have beaten Penn State.
“It was a very defensive game for us, but their shots were not as strong as I thought they would be,” she said. “This is the first year that I think we could have beat Penn State, if only our offense would have gotten into the game.”
“This is the first time I feel that we’ve kept with Penn State,” agreed Rutgers coach Ann Petracco. “We played a good defensive game, and fell apart on the attack. If we could have moved our attack, it would have been a different ball game.”
The Lady Lions came out playing a physical but conservative game. The scoring didn’t start for the Lions until late in the first half, when Amy Stairs scored on a penalty corner with an assist from Chris McGinley.
The Lions failed to score on the previous eight penalty corners, and had four additional penalty corners in the second half.
“Their goalkeeper used a lay down technique to cover the goal on penalty corners, that makes it tough to score on,” Lady Lion Jen Coletta said.
“Our attack was not aggressive today,” Stairs said, “We didn’t capitalize on many key opportunities.”
Rutgers came out playing a more aggressive second half. The Lady Knights held the Lady Lions to only seven second half shots on goal, and one additional goal. The ball even made a few brief appearances in Penn State territory.
Coletta scored the only second half goal. Jen Stewart and Tara Maguire, who had a hat trick last game, were credited with the assist.
Rutgers had a total of four shots on goal in the game, and freshman goalkeeper Shelly Meister had three saves in her first collegiate start. Penn State had a total of 26 shots on goal, and Rutgers goalkeeper Deem had 17 saves for the day.
“We have to work on our transitions between lines,” said Morett. “We play on grass next week and I feel that that will be to our benefit.”
The Lady Lions will play at No. 10 Connecticut on Saturday.
“We haven’t peaked yet,” said Main. “The best is yet to come.”