The No. 25-ranked William & Mary field hockey team put up a strong fight Sunday afternoon, but could not overcome a potent corner offense from No. 3 Duke in a 4-0 loss. The Tribe starts the year 0-1 overall, while the Blue Devils improved to 2-0 on the opening weekend.
How It Happened
- Both teams came out strong in the opening quarter, keeping play flowing in the midfield and neither able to make a crack through to goal.
- Duke finally broke through early in the second, drawing a corner at the end of the 17th minute. After Lily Posternak inserted the ball, she was able to sneak through the defense in front and deflected in a shot from Noor van de Laar for her first goal of the season, and the 1-0 lead.
- The Blue Devils kept attacking hard, drawing six penalty corners in the 15-minute quarter, and scored twice more for the 3-0 lead at halftime.
- Despite those three scores, it wasn't all Duke's way in the quarter. The Tribe stuffed three penalty corners, and sophomore goalkeeper
Kimi Jones (Virginia Beach, Va.) made two great saves in the normal run of play in addition to a save on the final corner for three total on her afternoon. On the offensive end, W&M began breaking through as well, with sophomore captain
Cara Menges (Richmond, Va.) taking a pair of shots, and freshman
Sally Snead (Midlothian, Va.) took a shot of her own that had to be kicked away by the Duke goalkeeper.
- In the third quarter, senior
Morgan Connor (Bedford, N.Y.) checked into goal for the Tribe, and play continued to pick up around both goals. Junior
Ella Donahue (Midlothian, Va.) had a strong diving attempt right in front of goal that was saved by Duke, and Connor made a save of her own right before the end of the quarter in a flurry of three shots from inside two yards. Unfortunately, the third and final shot hit the body of a Tribe defender on the goal line, and a penalty stroke was awarded to Duke that Haley Schleicher converted with one second remaining for a 4-0 lead.
- The strong defensive work continued in the fourth and final quarter, with senior
Cassidy Goodwin (Midlothian, Va.) making a defensive save in mid-air off the goal line in the 51st minute. W&M had one final attempt at a score in the 59th minute, but the shot from sophomore
Jorja Morgan (Wakerley, Queensland, Australia) slide just wide of the goalmouth.
Starters
W&M -
Kimi Jones,
Haley Hopkins,
Annie Snead,
Ella Donahue,
Tabby Billingham,
Cata Days,
Christie van de Kamp,
Cara Menges,
Woodard Hooper,
Cassidy Goodwin,
Jorja Morgan
Duke - Sammie Steele, Hannah Miller, Leah Crouse, Jillian Wolgemuth, Noor van de Laar, Lily Posternak, Haley Schleicher, Margaux Paolino, Lexi Davidson, Josie Varney, Grace Kim
Notes
Today was the first career start for both Donahue and freshman
Tabby Billingham (Dallinghoo, Suffolk, England) ... Goodwin's defensive save was the seventh of her career, lifting her into a tie for 13th all-time at W&M ... While last year's season-opener against Duke resulted in the same score, W&M's 2019 squad took more shots (5, versus 3) and allowed fewer Duke shots (17, versus 21) than one year ago ... Every player on the active roster saw action Sunday.
Up Next
William & Mary has a split weekend in the Tidewater Area next weekend. On Friday night, Sept. 6, the Tribe heads to Norfolk to take on archrival Old Dominion at 5 p.m., before returning home on Sunday morning for an 11 a.m. match-up with Long Island University.
