Esther Lim/The Daily Northwestern
Junior goalkeeper Annabel Skubisz makes a save. Skubisz performed a an important position in lifting the Wildcats to victory towards the Nittany Lions Friday.
October 4, 2022
Field Hockey
In a weekend of contested convention battles, Northwestern used to be put to the take a look at at Lakeside Field. Competing in back-to-back additional time games, the squad confronted arguably its hardest pageant up to now.
The Wildcats (10-2, 1-2 Big Ten) surprised No. 6 Penn State Friday in a top octane 5-4 additional time win, however fell quick of their additional time sport Sunday to No. 4 Maryland. Led via graduate ahead Bente Baekers and senior midfielder Peyton Halsey, the workforce scored six objectives over the 2 days of play. Halsey set a brand new season document Friday after scoring her first hat trick towards the Nittany Lions.
“We just had really good energy, warming up and getting prepared for the game,” Halsey stated. “We all trust each other and we work really hard.”
NU struggled to seek out its momentum originally of the fit Friday, with Penn State’s fast tempo in transition permitting the Nittany Lions to take hold of the higher hand within the 8th minute. But via the second one quarter, Baekers put NU again into the sport, grabbing a snappy purpose off of an help from sophomore midfielder Lane Herbert.
From there, the Cats stored up with the opposition, buying and selling purpose for purpose within the 3rd and fourth quarters. Halsey discovered her personal groove scoring all 3 of the squad’s ultimate objectives.
Closing out the primary additional time, Baekers drew a penalty stroke with seven seconds ultimate and gave NU a possibility to ship Penn State house. Halsey went to the stroke line and despatched the ball to the again of the cage finishing the sport and surprising the Nittany Lions.
Heading into Sunday, the Cats aimed to copy the victory towards convention rival Maryland. The Cats and the Terrapins have a longstanding document of exciting games, normally finishing in an additional time end. NU’s matchup with Maryland adopted the fashion, going into additional time after a 1-1 tie for many of law.
But the Cats couldn’t repeat the similar victorious result two days later, falling to the Terrapins 2-1 in additional time. Baekers scored the lone purpose for the crowd within the 3rd minute of the sport.
“We weren’t on our game (on Sunday),” trainer Tracey Fuchs stated. “We had way too many unforced errors.”
Although NU gained its 2d lack of the season, the gamers stated they can’t stay at the previous losses and want to stay pushing ahead. Only dipping their feet into convention play, the Cats shall be dealing with the remainder of the Big Ten within the upcoming weeks, together with longtime foes Rutgers and Michigan.
With the Big Ten Tournament a month away, each sport will increase in depth. NU shall be heading at the street for the following 3 games to fight No. 23 Rutgers, Michigan State and Ohio State.
The Cats glance to get again within the win column towards the Scarlet Knights this weekend. The workforce’s expansion at the offense and the upward thrust of latest gamers proves NU could make any other critical run within the postseason.
“We still have a ton of work to do,” Fuchs stated. “We’re really close to being a really great team, but we got to show up every day and put that on the field.”
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