On Sept. 12, Wesleyan field hockey travelled to Wellesley, Mass. to face off against the Blue in its second game of the season. In their first nonconference action, the Cardinals came up short and fell by a score of 3-2. It was the first time in three years that Wellesley has come away with a victory over Wesleyan.

The Cardinals dominated the play for the majority of the game but were plagued with penalties (one green card and two yellow cards). This forced Wesleyan to play down a woman for 14 minutes of action. Though the Cardinals outshot the Blue 19-6 and penalty corners 13-5, Wellesley was able to convert on half of its opportunities, and that proved to be the difference.

Co-captain Ashley McLaren ’13 was the first to score in the contest. Hannah Plappert ’16 fed her the ball from the corner, and McLaren rocketed it home from the top of the circle. That score held up for the remainder of the first half, and Wesleyan went into the break up 1-0.

However, the Cardinal women did not keep up their initial momentum. Just eight minutes into the second half, Wellesley had scored twice to take a 2-1 advantage over the Cardinals.

Wesleyan struggled to knot up the score but finally broke through with nine minutes left. Vanessa Block ’15 centered a pass to Taryn Murray ’13, who redirected the pass into the upper left-hand corner of the net to tie the score at two. Murray has now tallied two goals in two games.

Just two minutes later, Wellesley regained the lead on a penalty corner. This final goal would be the last for either team, and the Cardinals were sent home with the loss.

Although the Cardinals turned up the offensive pressure to close out the game, Wellesley’s superb defense and goaltending carried the team through to the win and held Wesleyan to just two goals on 12 shots on goal. While the Cardinals were unable to capitalize on their scoring opportunities, they did hold control of the play for much of the game, as goaltender Tori Redding ’13 made only one save in the 70 minutes of play.

The field hockey team looks to get on to the winning track this weekend with a couple of home games. The first comes on Saturday, Sept. 15 versus Tufts before taking on Hamilton on Sunday, Sept. 16.