By Dave Johnson
W&M Athletics
 
Neither Maddie George nor Pyper Friedman had shootout experience at the collegiate level before Friday night. But they helped prepare each other in practice for just such an occasion.
 
In William & Mary's 3-2 win over Hofstra at Busch Field, after regulation and two 10-minute overtimes, George made three key stops and Friedman scored the clinching goal. It was the Tribe's first win of the season after six non-conference losses, four of which came against ranked teams.
 
"Pyper and I go against each other a lot in practice," said George, who had two huge saves in the final four minutes of regulation. "She prepared me well, and hopefully I prepared her well."
 
With each side scoring two goals in its first four chances, George stopped a shot by Hofstra's Lieke Gorsse by diving to her right. That left Friedman, a freshman, with a chance for win.
 
She got it beating Pride keeper Merlijn van der Vegt with a spin and shot to the left side of the cage.
 
"We work on it a lot in practice, and obviously going against Maddie George all the time, I was well prepared," Friedman said. "She's an amazing goalie.
 
"Getting this win was so important for us. Obviously, it's a CAA game, and we really wanted to come out with a win. But coming off six losses, it's really good for our team's momentum."
 
The Tribe took a 2-1 lead two minutes into the fourth quarter on a goal by freshman Kellen Richbourg, who was assisted by Cara Menges on the Tribe's ninth corner opportunity. It was the first goal by either team since 8:28 remained in the first period.
 
Hofstra (5-6, 0-1) answered less than three minutes later on a highlight-worthy goal by Eline Oldeman, whose shot from the right wing sailed past George's shoulder into the upper-right corner of the goal.
 
After giving up a goal on Hofstra's first shootout attempt, George knew there was little room for error. Still, she didn't pressure herself. In fact, she had a unique perspective.
 
"I thought, well, at least I got that out of my system," she said. "It's not like I have to keep up a perfect streak and then get scored on.
 
"It was good to get it out of the way. I kept on trying different things during the shootout, so if something didn't work, I knew to throw that away and try something else."
 
W&M coach Tess Ellis challenged her team with one of its toughest non-conference schedules in recent years. Penn State, Liberty, Virginia and Duke all are ranked among the top 20 in the National Field Hockey Coaches Association poll. VCU, though unranked, is 6-3 and played in the NCAA tournament last season.
 
Ellis did that knowing an 0-6 start was possible.
 
"The last couple of weeks, I've had all these people say to me, 'Are you OK?'" Ellis said. "And I say, 'I think so, am I supposed to be sick?' When people see a zero and six record, they automatically think you're having a bad season. The girls bought into that it's about us progressing and getting better.
 
"I said to the team, that was the end of preseason and this is the beginning of our real season. Our goal is to make top four in the conference. It doesn't matter how we get there. It's just making sure we have a season three, which is the conference tournament."

The Tribe found itself in an early hole after Hofstra scored just 3:19 into the game on a goal from Mercedes Currie.

Lauren Curran answered for W&M just over three minutes later, scoring her team-leading third goal of the season with a hard shot off the goalkeeper's pad.  The game would remain deadlocked at one until for fourth quarter.
 
W&M's next game is Sunday at noon against Northeastern at Busch Field. The Huskies lost 3-2 at James Madison on Friday.