Warfel's game-winner pushes Pride past Yale in final non-conference matchup

The Hofstra Pride field hockey team defeated Yale University Bulldogs 2-1 on Sunday Sept. 29, in their final game before Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) play.

Yale (2-5) dropped its fourth game in its last five outings while the Pride (4-5) have won four of five since starting the season with four straight losses. Head coach Courtney Veinotte called the win, “the most composed 60 minutes that we’ve put together this season.”

Senior Madison Warfel scored the game-winner with under a minute to go in the third quarter. As Frankie O’Brien unleashed a long shot from just inside the 23-yard line near the sideline, Warfel extended her stick out and deflect it inside the circle and past Bulldog goalkeeper Sydney Terroso.

“[Warfel] absolutely understands this is her turf,” Veinotte said of the senior, who has tallied three goals in her past two games at home. “She’s performing very well and she is understanding what the team needs of her.”

However, Yale was first to score in this contest. In the second quarter, junior Imogen Davies scored on one of the Bulldogs’ eight penalty corners on the day. The goal was Davies’s second of the year and the only one that the Bulldogs got past Pride goalie Merlijn van der Vegt.

Van der Vegt finished with four saves on the day.

In the third quarter, the Pride got on the board off of a well-played give-and-go between Cami Larsson and Djuna Slort after the Pride’s second-straight corner opportunity. The first corner saw O’Brien send the ball to Warfel who tapped it over to Larsson, only to see her shot blocked by Yale’s Kelly Dolan, setting up another try.

This time, the Pride changed things up. Larsson received the free hit from O’Brien and tapped it over to Slort on her right. Larsson then broke towards the goal and Slort gave it back to her right around the penalty spot and Larsson cashed in for her team-leading fifth goal of the season.

This game was a tale of two halves for the Hofstra Pride. After some early pressure that resulted in no shots on the net, the Pride was on their heels for much of the first two quarters. They went into halftime with just two shots, neither on goal, and just one penalty corner. They stepped it up after the break, with four shots in the third quarter alone and all three of their shots on goal in the game also came in that third frame.

Historically, the Pride hasn’t fared well against Yale, with a 10-18 record against the Bulldogs all time. The victory also snapped a three-game skid in the head-to-head matchup.

This was the Pride’s final game before beginning to face CAA opponents. The Pride welcomes in the Drexel Dragons on Friday Oct. 4 at 3 p.m.

“[We needed to] get back on that momentum of the win and that winning feeling going into next Friday,” Veinotte said.

Image courtesy of Adam Flash