On Sunday afternoon, the Hofstra Pride got off to a bad start, and ultimately, they couldn’t recover. They never regained the lead, and wound up losing to the Lock Haven Eagles by a score of 5-2. Right off the bat, not even a minute and a half into the game, the Eagles scored a goal worthy of being on Sportscenter’s top ten plays, with Dana Lee De Gannes deflecting a phenomenal bullet pass from 15 yards away from Niamh Sexton, into the top shelf of the net.
The Pride did respond well, however, and spent the next several minutes in the Lock Haven territory with a flurry of chances on net. But as soon as they lost possession, the Eagles pushed the Pride right back on their heels. They pushed the ball right back down the field, and on a beautiful fast break, Alyscia Smith found Taryn Piano for an easy tap in goal, to make it 2-0. But instead of folding, the Pride responded to get right back into the game. Unlike previous games, where the Pride had double digit corners and couldn’t capitalize on a single one of them, they scored their first of two goals on corners to make it 2-1, both of which were scored by Valerie Vogels. “We got the opportunities, and for having a team being really set in the penalty corners, I thought we did a fantastic job there, great goals… they executed quite well, and they gave Valerie an opportunity to shoot under pressure and she put in two fantastic goals, and I’m really proud of her.”
After the Pride’s superb execution to cut the Eagles lead in half, the Eagles came right back, with Alyscia Smith putting home a rebound to make it 3-1, before converting a penalty stroke to make it 4-1 and effectively put the game out of reach fo the Pride. But, true to form, the Pride showed resilience, something head coach Kathleen Deangelis cited as a mark of improvement for her young squad. “I really think in this game, I thought we, for the team that we were playing, and their attack output, we rebounded very quickly, and that’s something that we’ve been struggling with, that resiliency. I mean, we’ve been cycling through 6 freshmen in there, 1 redshirt freshmen in there, 2 sophomores in there, a freshman in goal, and there’s only one junior and only two seniors who are in that lineup. There’s a lot of weight on those couple of seniors, and our captain Madison Warfel, but I thought they did a great job this time, really helping our players be much more resilient… It is an improvement. We’re still not where we need to be, but it was definitely a mental improvement from where it’s been.”
Indeed, Valerie Vogels scored on another penalty corner to make it 4-2, and the Pride kept fighting, before Dana Lee De Gannes scored her second goal of the game, this one unassisted, to make it 5-2, with 15 seconds left. The Pride’s can take a lot from this game, and their improvement is absolutely noticeable. However, if they want to get to where they want to go, they have a lot or work to continue to do. The Pride play Towson on the road at 3pm this coming Friday.
Straight Shuster 