Wednesday night was Senior Night for the Wesleyan field hockey team, as the Cardinals returned home to host the Trinity Bantams following two road games last week. After giving up an early goal to the visitors, Wesleyan rebounded with a goal by co-captain Liz Chabot ’12, but the Cardinals failed to convert their chances in the second half as Trinity escaped with a 2-1 victory. Wesleyan had extended their winning streak to five games earlier last week with a 4-0 victory at NESCAC foe Connecticut College before having that streak snapped in a 2-0 loss at Little Three rival Amherst College. Wednesday night’s contest brought an end to the regular season for the Cardinals who begin NESCAC tournament play this weekend after securing the 7th seed.
Trinity applied pressure early on in Wednesday night’s game, attacking the Wesleyan defensive end and making charging runs at the Cardinal goal. The Wesleyan backline stood its ground on two early penalty corner plays by the Bantams, only to have a third penalty corner just four minutes into the game result in a Trinity goal, as junior attacker Hadley Duncan secured a loose ball in front of the goal and skillfully placed her shot into the back of the Cards’ cage.
A Wesleyan time-out just minutes later provided the momentum change the Cardinals needed to step up in the offensive zone. Wesleyan quickly found the equalizer as Chabot stripped a Bantam player of the ball near midfield for a breakaway towards the goal, in which she swiftly swept the ball behind the Trinity goalkeeper as the Bantam defense collapsed around her.
After heading into the half at a 1-1 tie, Wesleyan began the second half looking to pull ahead by penetrating the Bantam backline and threatening the Trinity goal. The Cardinals forced five penalty corners in the second half, but unfortunately were kept off the board by the Trinity defense. The Bantams struck first in the second half, converting on a penalty corner to take a 2-1 lead. The Cards responded with heavy offensive pressure in the last ten minutes left the game, but their attacks in the were to no avail, as Trinity emerged with a 2-1 NESCAC win.
Wesleyan picked up a NESCAC win earlier last week, breaking out for four second-half goals against Connecticut College in a 4-0 victory in conference play. The Wesleyan defense kept the Camels off the scoreboard in the contest, with Wesleyan goalkeeper Tori Redding ’13 notching her sixth shut-out of the season. Taryn Murray ’13 led the Cardinals’ second-half scoring outburst, posting up her fourth and fifth goals of the season to bookend goals by Chabot and Averill Roberto ’13. Wesleyan saw its five-game win streak snapped at Amherst on Saturday, however, as the Lord Jeffs used two first-half goals by Katie McMahon and Ellie Andersen to hand Wesleyan its fifth loss of the season.
The Cardinals won’t have to wait long to avenge Saturday’s loss, as the team is set to travel up to Amherst this Saturday to take on the 2nd-seeded Lord Jeffs in the first round of the NESCAC tournament. The teams will meet in the NESCAC quarterfinals for the second year in a row and Wesleyan will look to regain its winning form to make a run in the playoffs.