The field hockey team took to the road this weekend for its first games away from Yale this season against No. 13 Albany and Hofstra, and returned with two losses.
The Elis (1-3, 0-0 Ivy League) played a tough first game on the road Saturday against the nationally ranked Great Danes (4-0, 0-0 America East), coming out strong to take a halftime lead before Albany rallied, eventually defeating Yale 4-2.
“Overall we played them tough — the best we’ve played against them in recent years,” head coach Pam Stuper said in an interview with Yale Athletics. “We scored two goals against a team that hasn’t given up a lot of goals this year. But they have got a strong penalty corner unit, and we gave them too many chances in the second half.”
Forward Brooke Gogel ’14 opened the scoring for Yale a little over a minute and a half into the game off an assist from midfielder Emily Schuckert ’14. Albany, trailing for the first time all year, quickly tied the game with a goal less than seven minutes later off a penalty corner shot.
But the Bulldogs found the net again when forward Gabby Garcia ’14 scored off a penalty corner on the final play of the half, allowing the team to head into the locker room with a 2–1 lead at half time.
The advantage did not last long. Albany tied the game six minutes into the second half and pushed ahead less than 10 minutes later, scoring two more goals in a span of four minutes.
The Elis surrendered three second-half goals off penalty corners to an Albany team that had a 7-0 advantage in the second half and an overall advantage of 13-2 on penalty corners.
On Sunday, the Bulldogs lost to Hofstra (3-4, 0-0 CAA) 4–3 in overtime, after coming back to tie the game at three near the end of regulation. Yale midfielder Georgia Holland ’14 scored the first goal of the game near the one-minute mark off a penalty corner and kept the advantage for 30 minutes before Hofstra scored, tying the game at one going into the half.
The Bulldogs were unable to keep Hofstra off the scoreboard in the beginning of the second half when the Pride scored two unanswered goals to take a 3–1 lead. The Elis launched a relentless comeback after the 60-minute mark, as Holland scored off of a corner in the 62nd minute and forward Erica Borgo ’14 tied the game just before the end of regulation at 68:37.
Near the beginning of sudden-death overtime, Yale was awarded a penalty corner, but the team was unable to capitalize and score. Three minutes later, junior forward Jonei Boileau of Hofstra scored her third goal of the game and the Pride came away with the 4–3 victory.
“We didn’t put together a complete effort, from start to finish, today,” Stuper said in an interview with Yale Athletics. “There were individual moments of brilliance, but we didn’t play well enough as a team to get the win.”
Yale takes on Harvard at home for its first conference game next Saturday and follows with a game against Vermont on Sunday.