The field hockey team’s 6-3 preseason loss to the Greenwich Club seemed reminiscent of last season’s overtime woes, but the Bulldogs have nothing but confidence in their prospects for 2002-2003.
Yale played the scrimmage match at Johnson Field versus a mostly male co-ed Greenwhich team boasting players from Australia and England.
“Coach [Ainslee Lamb] told us to just go out there and take advantage of all the time we had,” midfielder Chrissy Hall ’05 said.
The game included three 35-minute regulation periods and a full 15-minute overtime, during which Greenwich netted 3 goals. Hall, Fran Gardner ’04, and Meredith Howell ’05 provided the Eli offense by each scoring a goal in regulation play.
“Their goalie is on the U.S. National Team so we played up on our strengths, did a lot of passing, and took as many shots on goal as we could,” Hall said.
With this game and last Monday’s victory over the University of Toronto, the Bulldogs have a good working assessment of their assets and shortcomings.
“The scrimmages were a great opportunity to discover that we need to work on shooting the ball when we are in our offensive circle,” Stephanie Dolmat-Connell ’04 said. “We’ve been tending to play around with the ball too much instead of getting a quick shot off.”
The Bulldogs are now preparing for next Sunday’s contest against Princeton, their first home game of the year.
“We are all getting really fired up for Princeton,” Dolmat-Connell said.
Last season, the Eli squad was called “about as threatening as a de-clawed koala bear” by the Princetonian.
That misbegotten remark served as ample enough locker room motivation for the Bulldogs, who went on to play their best field hockey of the season in an inspired 3-2 loss to the No. 7 Tigers Oct. 30, 2001.