The William and Mary field hockey team got its 2012 season off to a very impressive start Saturday, cruising to a 5-1 victory on the road at Davidson. W&M starts the year at 1-0 for the second consecutive season, and the five goals were the most scored in the first match since 2003 when the Tribe scored six against Vermont.
Box Score
Leading the way for the Tribe was senior captain
Christine Johnson (Williamsburg, Va.), who had a very busy afternoon with a school-record four goals as well as a defensive save. She is the seventh player ever at W&M to score four times in a single game, and the first to do so since
Katie Silverthorne '02 put in four goals against VCU on Oct. 7, 2001. Her total of eight points is tied for third-most ever at the College, behind only
Saskia Bensdorp's '98 two nine-point efforts in 1995.
Other notables included senior
Ashley Kyle (San Diego, Calif.), whose goal in the 17th minute ignited the scoring for W&M.
Jesse Ebner (Sinking Spring, Va.) and
Chaney Manganello (Richmond, Va.) each had a pair of assists in support of Johnson's goals, while
Emma Clifton (Loomberah, NSW) and
Pip Saunders (Mittagong, NSW) each had a single assist. Junior
Giovanna Golen (Charlotte, N.C.) earned the first start of her career and tallied a defensive save, and senior goalkeeper
Elizabeth Frey (Virginia Beach, Va.) picked up three more saves while going the distance for the victory.
It was a fast and furious first half that told the tale of the day's match. The host Wildcats came out of the gates firing, getting a goal in the ninth minute and tallying four shots in the first 11:24. For the rest of the half, however, it was all Tribe with an 11-0 advantage in shots and a 9-0 advantage in penalty corners. Kyle knotted the score at 1-1 in the 17th minute, after the Davidson goalkeeper failed to clear a deflected pass. The kinesiology major was able to corral the ball and poke it into the back of the net for her seventh career tally.
Johnson put the College ahead for good in the 24th minute, converting her first penalty-stroke goal after Davidson was whistled for illegally stopping a scoring chance. Just over three minutes later, the Tribe was awarded a corner and once again the trio of Ebner, Clifton, and Johnson connected to blast the ball into the boards and make the score 3-1 in favor of the visitors. The march towards history for Johnson continued in the final minute and a little beyond, with two goals in the span of 49 seconds at the end of the half. Another corner opportunity was awarded with just under a minute to play, and this time it Saunders connecting with Manganello who set Johnson up perfectly for the score.
Still pressing, the Tribe won their 10th corner of the half as the horn was sounding, but under field hockey rules, the corner must be played out before the half could end. Ebner inserted to Manganello, and Johnson's shot skipped in off the stick of a defender to set the winning margin at 5-1. With victory nigh assured, the College eased off the accelerator a bit in the second half and both sides recorded two more shots each, with Frey stopping one and Golen picking up her first career save on the other.
William and Mary returns to the field tomorrow afternoon, facing Appalachian State at 4 p.m. The match will be held at Davidson's field.
