Hard Work Pays Off

In Albany, NY the team found their dream ride!

By Meg Jarrell

After splitting games during our trip to Albany, New York, and then splitting games again against Robert Morris and #2 UNC, we were all ready to start a winning streak. And what better time to do it than the beginning of conference play?

Last Saturday all of the hard work we’ve been putting in really paid off with a 2-1 win against Longwood. Not only was the win a great way to start off conference play, but it was a well-earned victory. The team battled schoolwork, fatigue, and even a few colds throughout the week, but we persevered and pushed through to play some really great hockey. Finley put up two goals including a beautiful unassisted one near the end to win the game. A goal that pretty and solid really messes with a team mentally, so with some solid team defense we were able to cruise to our first conference victory.

Sophomore Sydney Schreiner works hard while working
out in the athletic training room. Nether hard work nor
injuries keep DCFH from working hard.

We had to make a quick turnaround to get ready to play App State on Tuesday on their field turf. Since we play on AstroTurf all the time, field turf is a big change for us. Luckily the football team had the day off on Monday so we were able to use their field to get used to the different surface. Field turf is slower and seems to almost stick to the ball at times so playing on it can be very frustrating. Also, the small black pellets that come with field turf get EVERYWHERE. Two days later we are still finding them in our shoes and bags- even our laundry! I don’t know how the football team deals with playing on it all the time. It’s a beautiful field, but we’ll stay on our own beautiful turf field from now on. :)

Normally when we travel to App it’s super cold and there’s a lot of wind. Their stadium is only really open at one end so the wind will whip through and make it really cold. Luckily for us App State was warmer than usual. We still brought Under Armour to stay warm, but a lot of us took it off when game time came around. As usual, App State’s sound system really blasted through the stadium and pumped us up. Ginny got some silly videos of us dancing during our stretching that are sure to be included in the end of season video. The fun didn’t end with warm ups though. Finley followed up her Longwood performance with another two-goal performance and Tyler added another to give us a 3-1 win. It may have been a long night, but the late bus ride back is always more pleasant when you’re coming home with a win!

Next weekend while the rest of our classmates go on Fall Break DCFH will head up to Richmond to play St. Louis. Then on Tuesday we head over to Winston-Salem to play Wake Forest, a usual powerhouse in college field hockey. We want to continue with our winning ways so wish us luck!

-Meg #10

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