Following another tough loss to a national power, No. 12 Boston College, last Sunday, the Yale field hockey team hopes to bounce back Saturday when they take on Dartmouth (8–4, 2–1 Ivy) in an effort to keep their solid Ivy League season intact. So far this season, the Bulldogs (6–5, 2–1) have lost just one game in conference play, a 7–0 loss to No. 4 Princeton, a team that has been consistently ranked in the national top five all season. Yale finished second to the Tigers last year — a 5–2 loss at Princeton was their only conference loss.
Freshman standout Erica Borgo ’14, who leads the Elis with 15 points, said the team’s experience playing against nationally top ranked teams will serve them well going forward.
“Your competitive performances against these top teams, even though resulting in losses, only boost our confidence going into Dartmouth,” Bargo said. “Knowing that we are more than capable of competing with such high level teams truly shows what the rest of the postseason has to offer us.”
But the Bulldogs will face a Big Green offense ranked third in the nation in goals per game. Dartmouth midfielder Kelly Hood already has three hat tricks and 18 goals this season and leads the Big Green offensive attack. Midfielder Virginia Peisch, who leads the nation in assists with 20, will also pose a threat this weekend.
“Hood is really good at the drag on corners, so the corner unit has done some extra work on that particular skill,” midfielder Chelsey Locarno ’12 said. “Other than that though, we’ve prepared pretty normally — we just need to play our game.”
The Bulldogs ride into this weekend’s games on the strong performances of two freshmen. Borgo scored both of Yale’s goals in Sunday’s loss to Boston College while Georgia Holland ’14 has not only registered 13 points on the season, but has done the job on defense as well, tallying four defensive saves in the past three games. Both Borgo and Holland have received Ivy League Rookie of the Week honors this season, Holland twice.
“I feel we are completely prepared to take on Dartmouth and come out with a win,” Borgo said following Sunday’s heartbreaking loss. “We expect nothing but wins for the rest of our games.”
Faceoff for Saturday’s game in Hanover is scheduled for noon. On Sunday, the Bulldogs will travel to Worcester, Mass. for a non-conference game against Holy Cross (0–12).