In Their Own Words: Erin Rock

Oct. 1-12

In an attempt to gain insight into American University's Field Hockey team, we asked several players to write weekly diaries. Junior Erin Rock writes as the Eagles look to remain undefeated going into the mid-way point of their season.

BUCKNELL:
All week at practice we had been preparing for our first Patriot League game of the season! Going into the weekend, we were 8-0 with hopes of starting league play with a win. The day before the game, we practiced how we were going to defend Bucknell's 16 yard hits because they use passes that we are not used to seeing. Although Bucknell was 3-6 going into the game, we knew they would come at us strong and hard with a desire to beat a nationally ranked league opponent. Because of this, we wanted to have a specific plan to stick to in order to execute a win.
The game did not start how we would have liked, we controlled much of the play, but Bucknell scored off of a rebound from a short corner with just six minutes left in the first half. Their reaction was all we needed to fire us up for the second half. They were unbelievably excited. Just eight minutes into the second half Javiera Villagra scored with a deflection option off of a sweep pass from Camila Infante, which was one of our short corner options. A Chilean connection! With 23 minutes left in the half, we knew we could win! Seven minutes later, Javi scored again with a direct shot on another short corner option pass from Camila to put us up by one. Then Camila scored a goal of her own when she skillfully dribbled in the circle, took a shot, and scored on her own rebound with a reverse chip. A great goal! We were up 3-1 with minutes left to play. Bucknell then came down and fired a chip shot that almost made the score 3-2, but it went wide. At the end of the game, we were pleased with the win, but not pleased with our play. We did not play with our usual energy. We just had to learn from our mistakes and move on to focus on the game ahead: William and Mary. When we got back to AU, we had a brief jog and stretch and review of William and Mary's offensive corner options to prepare for the next day.

WILLIAM AND MARY:
Now 9-0 on the season and still ranked 4th in the nation, many people thought William and Mary could be the team to take us out and give us our first lost on the season, but that was not the case!
This game had particular significance for me and Heather Maranzano. We are from Williamsburg (the hometown of William and Mary) and three of our former high school teammates play for the Tribe: a battle of "The Burg" as some might say! There was a lot of emotion going into this game for all of us as we were planning on playing in front of a crowd that was supporting William and Mary as many of their players are from around the area and their high school teams were coming to support them.
At the start of the game, we were definitely in control, dominating William and Mary with great passing combinations. However, we started another game down by one goal when William and Mary was awarded a penalty stroke and scored. We answered with a goal with a little more than three minutes left in the first half. Maureen Daniel scored on a direct shot off of a penalty corner. Finally we were rewarded for all of the hard work and great combinations we were making on the field! Just 35 seconds later, I made a tackle as Javiera Villagra channeled a girl into my stick. I was alone with the ball just outside the circle. I hit the ball to Maggie Hall in the D who then scored between the keepers legs to put us up 2-1! My first career assist couldn't have come in a better game! Less than a minute later, we won another corner. Camila Infante made a sweep pass to Maggie who was waiting low by the goal to deflect the ball in. Just seconds left in the first half and we were up 3-1 with a lot of momentum! We knew the game was ours!
Carrying our momentum into the beginning of the second half, Heather passed the ball to Camila at the top of the D who scored after only four minutes of play. At this point, we could feel William and Mary's energy drop. How cool for Heather and I to both have assists against a hometown rival! Our next goal came as Tiffany Carter dribbled the ball along the endline and into the circle. She made a back pass into the center to Kaitlin DeTroia who swept the ball high into the net to make it 5-1! Then, with a few minutes left in the game, Tiffany scored a goal of her own after inserting the ball to the top of the D for a short corner and getting the ball back just in front of the cage to make the game 6-1! With the end of the game, we are 10-0 on the season with hopes of continuing the winning streak as we head for another away trip to Lafayette and Rutgers the following weekend.

RUTGERS:
After inadvertently having the day off on Saturday because Lafayette's field was half-way under water, and the inclement weather continued, it was time to play Rutgers. Although the rain had stopped, it was still a gross day outside. From the start our warm-up was not that great. And so, the game began.
Only nine minutes into the game, Rutgers scored. Again, we were down by one goal with the start of the game. We had to come from behind to get the win. Less than six minutes later we answered by winning a short corner. Maureen Daniel took a shot and Heidi Hershberger deflected the ball into the back of the net for her first goal of the season, which tied the game at 1-1. Just before the end of the half, we had another corner opportunity. Maggie Hall scored a goal unassisted to make it 2-1 at the half.
Only 1:33 into the second half, Camila Infante scored on a penalty stroke that was awarded to our team. There was no way the keeper could have saved her stroke! The final goal was scored by Irene Schickhardt with an assist from Camila. We were up 4-1, but still not playing our best game. With not much time left in regulation, Rutgers scored to make the score 4-2. At the end of the game we had improved our season to 11-0! It was another learning experience for us because we did not play a great game or stick to our plan like we should have, but we were still able to get the win.

JAMES MADISON UNIVERSITY:
This was our first Wednesday game. JMU was ranked 16th in the nation and we were ranked 5th. Many people thought that they would be the team to give us our first loss on the season. After only having one day of practice beforehand, we were ready for the challenge. As per every game, we had a plan and we really stuck to it during the game.
Heather Maranzano scored our first goal of the game off of a pass from Camila Infante. For the first time in the past few games, we scored first! What a feeling! We knew we could carry the momentum throughout the game. Our passing combinations throughout the game were incredible. We were able to gracefully move the ball up and down the field as needed and we were able to transfer the ball from side to side as needed with much ease. Our game looked so fluid! When JMU had a chance to tie the score, Allison Fayfich, our goalie, stepped up to the challenge and cleared the ball out of the D. At the half, we were up 1-0.
Less than seven minutes into the second half, Irene Schickhardt passed the ball across the circle to Maggie Hall who collected it and faked the JMU keeper out and was able to simply push the ball into the cage with ease. With just 17:30 left in the game, Heather assisted an amazingly fiery goal by Denise Infante. The JMU keeper had no chance to safe her shot! As Steve started to make substitutions, many people had to step up and play positions on offensive and defensive corners in order to preserve our win. On a short corner option with a hard hit from Maureen Daniel, Kaitlin DeTroia stepped into Heidi Hershberger's usual position for the deflection and scored a great goal to take the game to 4-0! With only four minutes left in the game, JMU was able to score on the rebound from the initial shot on a short corner play. In the end, we won 4-1!
It is certainly hard to control the game from start to finish, but we definitely demonstrated that were the better team! It was a total team effort as many people saw playing time and made great contributions to our play! With this game behind us, we have only one day of practice before we have our first home Patriot League game against Lehigh.