Playing through the lightning and rain, the Yale women’s field hockey team was unable to secure a victory in their third game of the season, against American University.

After splitting their first two games, the Bulldogs were looking for another win on the field. American came into the game with a streak of three wins and scored 13 goals in its first four games — an average of 3.3 goals per game. Despite Yale’s loss, the Elis were able to hold their foe to only one goal, a significant improvement over their average.

“Over the past couple of weeks, we have been consistently trying to nail down our defense,” said captain Nicole Wells ’16, a staff reporter for the News. “Our defensive development showed in the game against American. We kept a team that roughly averages 3.25 [goals per game] to only one goal.”

Offensively, however, Yale didn’t fare as well.

In the first half, the Eagles shot seven times on goal, in comparison to Yale’s two shots. However, none of these shots were successful, and the game remained 0–0 until the latter part of the second half.

Although Yale’s offense improved in the second frame, the Bulldogs were again outshot by American — this time 9–4. They also successfully converted a shot, the only goal in the 70-minute match.

“We could have improved on increasing our offensive chances up the field,” Wells said. She expressed confidence that the team will be able to turn over and build on their offense during practice and later in games.

The weather in D.C. also made things worse for the Bulldogs. According to Tess Thompson ’18, the weather was the most difficult part of the game, since it rained heavily for the entire duration of the matchup.

Conditions were so severe that with seven minutes left in the second half, the game had to be suspended due to lightning. The teams were able to return to the field once the storm had passed.

“It is always weird having to stop the game for something other than a quick timeout,” Wells said. “But honestly, I think our team handled it pretty well, and came out hard once we were allowed to play on the field again.”

Despite the circumstances, the Bulldogs are looking confidently to the future. Emmy Reinwald ’17 said that even though it was only the third game of the season, the team played as if they had been playing together for much longer. She added that it was great to see everyone working together and putting in effort.

Wells added that even though they lost, the team is focusing more on the big picture of where they are right now in the season. She said that with each game, the team has seen strong and rapid improvements on the field, and that by Ivy play they will be a powerful team.

Yale will face two foes this weekend, both of which will be at home. The Elis will play Bryant on Friday and Syracuse on Sunday.

“We’re going to work hard this week in preparation for Bryant and Syracuse,” Reinwald said. “Bryant is always a tough opponent, and Syracuse is one of the top teams in the nation, so we have to be focused and disciplined.”

The game against Bryant was originally scheduled to be played at Bryant but has been moved to Johnson Field.