By Alana Pelosi
The Hofstra field hockey team cruised to 6-1 after two victories this past week against Sacred Heart and Quinnipiac. Wrapping up non-conference play with four straight wins, the team looks to ride that momentum into next week against CAA rival, Drexel.
In Friday’s 2-0 shutout against Sacred Heart, Senior captain Brit Blankmeyer scored the Pride’s first goal of the game off an assist from senior Nancy Vagenbrenner. The goal, Blankmeyer’s fourth on the season, came off a penalty corner with 19:09 remaining in the first half. From there, the first half became largely a defensive match and remained in a 1-0 deadlock.
The Pride carried their dominance over Sacred Heart into the second half by keeping Sacred Heart away from the net and with an early goal. After a wide shot by Vagenbrenner on the half’s first penalty corner, another penalty corner was immediately called.
From there, a split second later, senior Vice Captain Charlia Warner knocked in her team-high seventh goal on the season and increased the Pride’s lead to 2-0.
Of Warner’s and Blankmeyer’s performances, head coach Kathy Di Angelis said, “They really complement each other and it is nice not having to depend on just one player for all the scoring.”
With 17:08 remaining in the game, freshman Amanda Heyde entered into the net for sophomore Krisha Giammarco. Heyde (2-0), who had one save on the game, garnered CAA Co-Rookie of the Week honors after picking up two wins and her first career shutout last week. Giammarco (3-1) put in a solid start with two saves and earned the decision.
With two joint shutouts, Giammarco and Heyde continue to battle it out for the starting spot. “We haven’t made a final decision, yet.” Said Di Angelis. “In any particular game we can platoon either goalie at this point.”
Heyde earned the start in the 2-1 victory against Quinnipiac on Wednesday and improved her perfect record to 3-0 after she had two saves and allowed one goal.
After a scoreless first half, Wagenbrenner broke things open with the Pride’s first goal that put the team ahead 1-0. Less than a minute later, Warner was there again to add to the team’s lead with her eighth goal of the season.
Things get even busier for the Pride as Blankmeyer added, “Next week we start conferences and we’re very excited about that, but we have to work on our defense and work on creating more scoring opportunities.”
The Pride’s conference play will start against Drexel on Sunday, September 28, 2008 at Hofstra University.