The Quill/Jean DeBiasse
By Pat Delp Staff writer
The Susquehanna field hockey team earned its fourth win of the year on Sept. 17, defeating St. Mary’s 3-2.
Although Susquehanna was deemed the home team, the two teams battled on a neutral site at Notre Dame Prep in Towson, Maryland.
Senior forward Emily Novakovich explained why the teams played on a neutral site and her thoughts on the game.
“Our coaches decided to have a neutral [site] game because it would be a shorter travel day than us driving all the way to their campus or them driving to us,” she said. “Even though this was the first neutral game I have played here at Susquehanna, I think our team did exceptionally well,” Novakovich added.
With the win, the River Hawks improve to 4-1 to start their young season, which is its best start since 2013.
When asked what the early season success could be attributed to, junior forward Cayla Spatz said: “I think our overall game plan this season, compared to others, is being executed much better and has brought a lot of confidence to our team in every game we play.”
Spatz continued, “The upperclassman have done a great job setting the tone and setting our team expectations high right from the start of this season, and the new 11 freshman have all stepped up and jumped right into our style of play, which has helped us start our season strong.”
Not only has the team gotten a quick start to their season, but they got off to a quick start in the game as well.
Less than 12 minutes into the game, freshman midfielder Hunter Pitman scored the first goal of the game.
Not long after, Spatz added a goal of her own to put Susquehanna up 2-0.
St. Mary’s did not go down without a fight. The Seahawks opened up the second half with a goal.
However, Pitman was not done yet, as she scored her second goal of the game pushing the Susquehanna lead to 3-1. This proved to be the game-winning goal, as St. Mary’s scored again late in the half but the River Hawks remained on top.
Senior goalie Morgan Ludlam faced 12 total shots and recorded three saves.
Susquehanna had a total of 15 shots as well as 19 penalty corners, compared to seven from the Seahawks.
On Sept. 21, Susquehanna extended its winning streak to four games after taking down visiting Lebanon Valley College 3-2.
Both teams were deadlocked at one entering the halftime break. Pitman scored the lone goal of the half for the River Hawks; it was her third goal on the year.
In the second half, it was Pitman again who found the back of the net, this time coming off an assist from senior defender Tessa Woodring.
The goal from Pitman was the equalizer, coming just 10 minutes after Lebanon Valley scored to take the lead.
In the 68th minute, sophomore forward Taylor Franco put away the game-winner off an assist from Nokavich.
The two victories improved the field hockey team to 5-1, with all of the games coming against non-conference teams and all on Susquehanna’s home turf.
The first road test for the field hockey squad will come on Saturday, Sept. 24 when they travel to Catholic to take on the Cardinals.
