Skip to content
Sports

Season-opening homestand yields pair of losses

 – Photo by null

Ever since posting a five-point scoring output in the season opener against James Madison, the Rutgers field hockey team continues to face a similar problem: capitalizing on offensive opportunities.

That remained true this weekend, as the Scarlet Knights dropped both of their weekend contests to William & Mary and Miami (Ohio) to round out their homestand at the Bauer Track and Field Complex.

"We'll have to do more shooting drills, finishing drills — put them under that pressure in practices," said head coach Liz Tchou after her team scored just one goal in two games.

Rutgers showed promise on the offensive end in a 3-0 loss to Miami by generating a 10-7 shot advantage.

"We controlled the whole tempo of this game. We just didn't finish," said sophomore forward Gia Nappi. "We had a lot of circle penetrations and shot options — we just didn't unacceptable."

Miami (1-3) got its first win of the season partly by capitalizing off its opportunities to overcome the Knights' consistent defensive effort.

The evidence lies with senior forward Jackie Nguyen's goal in the 69th minute to widen the gap to three — a score that came off a rebound from a saved shot by sophomore goalie Sarah Stuby.

Such is the story for the Knights defense this season: a consistent effort with only a couple breakdowns each game, according to Tchou.

"The defense played a lot better. They were much more organized. We were picking up players earlier," Tchou said. "We had just a couple of breakdowns where they were able to get numbers up on around."

After that, Rutgers did not allow a Tribe goal for the rest of the game. Outside of the two-minute span in which the penalty shots went in, Stuby did not allow a single goal for the rest of the game.

"Sarah Stuby had a great game," Tchou said. "She made many key saves, and there could have been at least a couple more goals


Related Articles


Join our newsletterSubscribe