First Week of School, First Road Trip, and First Home Game

Freshman Julia Guthrie shows how prepared she is to beat Georgetown…. 24 hours in advance.

By Meg Jarrell

With classes starting, we’ve all been super busy, but every day from 415-645 we get to take a break from school to go out on the field and focus on the game we love. It’s always hard to get back in the swing of things right away, but DCFH hit the ground running the first two weeks of school with our first road trip and our first home game.

The focus we were able to keep through preseason and the first week of school paid off right away. We opened up our season up in Washington, D.C. against Georgetown. Georgetown is always a big rivalry for us, so we were all pumped to play (and beat!) them. Even though the freshmen didn’t quite understand the rivalry yet, they caught on to the excitement. Almost all of them showed up for our 6-hour bus ride dressed in their warm up gear, even though our game wasn’t until the next day!

The view from the back on the bus, where I sit. It may have been bright and sunny outside, but most of the team was asleep!

On the bus ride up we hit a little bit of bad weather and a lot of traffic, so it was longer than expected. However, we all were able to catch up on sleep and homework and watch a bunch of movies. Bus rides, even the long ones, are one of my favorite parts of being on the field hockey team. If you have to drive 6+ hours, doing it with 20 of your best friends is the way to go. Along the way we helped teach our coach how to work Twitter since Davidson Field Hockey just got an account. Follow us on Twitter @DCFH!

We ended up coming away from the Georgetown game with a 2-0 win. The first half started a little slow, but we held on and, after some key adjustments during halftime, we dominated the second half. It’s a really good sign when a team can listen to their coaches and teammates at half time and then go on to make the adjustments on the field right away. Our ability to do that will really end up taking us far this season.

Unfortunately the hurricane that took the east coast by storm caused our game against LaSalle to be canceled. We were all disappointed we didn’t get to play again, but it was nice to be back on campus early to rest up for a full week of practice. After 5 days out on the field, we felt fully prepared to face off against #16 Louisville in our first home game.

Normally facing off against such a highly regarded opponent would set nerves on edge, but after the great season we had last year and all of the hard work we’ve done so far this year, we couldn’t wait to measure ourselves against a top-ranked team.

Support for each other is a special part of being a Davidson Athlete. A nice note from the football team now hangs in our locker room on the team bulletin board.

At the game we had a ton of fans, which really helped keep the energy going the whole game. Since we only have 6 home games to enjoy this year, it really meant a lot to our team to see so many friends and family members in the stands.

Although we lost to Louisville 5-3, it was a really hard fought game. The game was tied up until the last few minutes, and although we were disappointed we didn’t come out with a W, we played some absolutely phenomenal hockey. Like our coaches said afterwards, if this is where we start, there’s no limit to how good we can become. VCU and William and Mary better watch out next weekend when we head up to Richmond for a doubleheader on the road!!

-Meg #10