On Wednesday, Oct. 3, Wittenberg’s Field Hockey team took on the Ohio Wesleyan Battling Bishops at home. The Tigers started off behind, but came back in the second half— only to lose in overtime to the Battling Bishops, 5-4.
The game started off slow for the Tigers, with the Battling Bishops scoring back-to-back in the first 15 minutes. With persistence the Tigers played on and pushed hard as Flora van den Borne, ’22, Blaine Donnelly, ’19, Allison Ormsby, ’22, and Megan Niswonger, ’21, all tried their hand at sending a ball into the goal.
With no time left in the half, Isabella Wagner, ’19, used the ball that came in from Donnelly’s penalty corner, and passed it up the middle to Ormsby, who landed the ball in the goal and scored for the Tigers.
In the second half, van den Borne was able to score in the first five minutes, putting the Tigers one step closer to the Battling Bishops. With the Tigers fired up and working their way up the field, Veronica Carrow, ’21, took two shots at the goal that were dismissed by the Bishops goalie. With her third time being the charm, Carrow knocked the ball into the goal and tied the game up for the first time, with almost 22 minutes left of playing time ahead.
The Bishops scored once more in the second half, but van den Borne was not about to let the Tigers be undone with one goal. She took one shot that was blocked and followed it up with a second that she snuck right past the Bishop’s keeper and scored.
With the game all tied up, the Tigers and Bishops went into overtime and sudden death. In Field Hockey overtime, each team places seven players on the field and the first team to score ends the game with their winning goal, giving their opponent no chance to score again.
In overtime, each team took one shot at their respective goals but four minutes in, the Bishops sent a ball sailing into the goal past Allie Purvis, ’19, and won the hard-fought battle.
“We gave everything in our last game and we’ve spent the past couple practices getting ready for the next. We worked extremely hard at practice and [are] ready to take on the conference [in] the remainder of the season” Emily Darnell, ’19, commented.
Both teams racked up six total green cards, three per team. Witt’s were given to Kayla Cull, ’20, Joan Matthews, ’20, and van den Borne. The Tigers took 17 shots, 10 being on goal, with two saves from keeper Purvis.
Lead scorer for the night was van den Borne with two goals out of her seven shots. Wagner led the team with one assist.
As of Saturday, Oct. 5, the Tigers are 2-9 overall and they made 17 goals so far this season. The team is averaging 11 shots per game and have received seven green cards.
Coming up the Tigers will take on Oberlin College at home on Wednesday, Oct. 10, followed by their match-up with Wooster College on Saturday, Oct. 13, for their Senior Day.
