After a couple of games on the road, the EMU field hockey team returned to the turf to round out the 2021 season with two home games. The Royals pulled out a win against hometown rival Bridgewater College on Thursday, April 8. In a quick turnaround, the Royals put up a respectable fight against the University of Lynchburg but fell to the Hornets.

         First-year defender Cassidy Armstrong said that beating Bridgewater College was an awesome feeling. Armstrong said, “The fact that EMU hadn’t beaten Bridgewater in nine years added extra excitement to the win.”

         Thursday’s game began uneventfully. Neither the Royals nor the Eagles were able to score in the first quarter. Ten minutes into the second quarter, Bridgewater’s forward Courtney Cooke slipped a shot past EMU’s second-year goalkeeper Ann Ghally, putting the first point on the scoreboard.

Ghally said, “Once Bridgewater scored the first goal, we knew we had to respond  not just with one goal, but with two more.” The Royals did just that and ended the game with a 3-2 victory over the Eagles. EMU goals were scored by second-year attacker and midfielder Morgan Tricarico, third-year attacker Skylar Hedgepeth, and third-year defender Brandy Troutman.

Fourth-year attacker Lauren Hartzler said, “Our team performs best when we simply have fun playing the game and that’s what we did on Thursday.” 

Head Coach Ashley “Stick” Kishorn added, “The team came out with energy and played with intentions to finish with the win.”

The game was rescheduled after a COVID-related postponement of the original game on March 30. Kishorn said, “This is a win the seniors in particular really wanted. So, it was imperative that we were able to put that game back on the schedule late in the season.”

The underclassmen recognized the effort of the three graduating seniors, Clover Cooper, Lauren Hartzler, and Bri Miller, in contributing to the win. Ghally said, “I also want to give credit to the senior class because they worked hard for 4 years to come out with a win in their last season.”

Fourth-year attacker Bri Miller said, “Adding this ODAC win to our overall record was something the seniors have wanted to do since our freshman year.” Hartzler said that beating Bridgewater College “was the perfect way to culminate these past four years.”

The Royals kept the energy high going into another home game against the undefeated Lynchburg Hornets on the following day, Friday, April 9. Kishorn said, “One of our focuses coming into [the] game was to limit scoring opportunities. The team did a great job with this, holding them to just three goals, which is the lowest Lynchburg has been held to this season.” Second-year goalkeeper Arianna Nixon accumulated thirteen saves during the game.

Troutman, Armstrong, Cooper, and third-year Rachel Breslin kept the Hornets’ scoring opportunities low with solid defense. The Royals’ defensive unit added seven defensive saves.

Kishorn said that in addition to quality defensive play, “we went into the game playing to win; this mindset allowed us to perform at a high level and make a great defensive stance against #1 Lynchburg.” 

Hartzler said, “Every person on the field worked so hard, and I was very content to end the season with that performance.”

With another season under their belts, the team is focused on moving forward in the seasons to come. Kisborn said, “Now, the next step is building off of the momentum; winning with more dominance and winning a few more conference games.” 

Armstrong added, “Even though we did not make the ODAC tournament this year, I think we proved that we can be a competitive team within the conference and I can’t wait to see what we do next season.”