The Oberlin College field hockey team had a victory under their belt and 10 days off to practice for their next game, but it wasn’t enough as Denison University handed them a 2-1 defeat in a hard-fought game last Tuesday. The loss gives the Yeowomen a record of 1-1 both in the conference and overall.
The final score line may have been against them but the play of the game was not all one-sided. Oberlin actually controlled most of the first half, and struck first with a goal by senior Chaney Stewman.
“We came out pretty well in the first [half],” senior Briana Quinn said. “[Stewman] had a really amazing goal.”
Stewman was the Yeowomen’s most proficient offensive weapon last year, leading the NCAC in points with 29 points coming from 10 goals and nine assists.
“Being a senior, [Stewman] wants to play her best season, so she is definitely looking to score a lot of goals for us again,” Quinn said.
The Yeowomen played strong through the end of the first half going into the break with a 1-0 lead.
Unfortunately, the second half looked like a different game.
“They just played a better half than we did in the second half,” Quinn said. “Unfortunately, we didn’t finish as strong as we started.”
In Oberlin’s first game against Kenyon, the team struggled in the second half with conditioning but managed to overcome and come away with the win. The 10 days off allowed the team to really address their fitness and made that problem less of a factor in this game.
“In terms of fatigue the first couple games of the season are always a little bit difficult because you’re not in your full shape, but over the past week and a half we have been doing a lot of running and conditioning,” Quinn said.
Unfortunately, some problems cropped up in other areas for the Yeowomen, mainly in aspects of their organization on the field.
“[Ranierei] gave us some suggestions at half time on what we had to do in the second half, and unfortunately we just didn’t do them,” Quinn said. “We didn’t provide ourselves with a lot of opportunities to score, we weren’t really working well together as a unit so that’s something we have to work on before our next game”
The Yeowomen will play two games at home this weekend — Saturday against Wittenberg University and Sunday against Washington & Jefferson College. The back to back games may provide an added challenge as the team’s limited subs will have to work extra hard on Sunday.
“In terms of fatigue I don’t think it will really be an issue for us, but we just have to maintain our focus for both of our games,” Quinn said.