Field hockey gets shut out by No. 4 ranked powerhouse UCONN
September 20, 2019
Quinnipiac field hockey came into its first Big East matchup against 16-time league champion the University of Connecticut as the underdogs, hoping to finally get a never before seen win against the Huskies. But it did not end up being a Cinderella story for the Bobcats.
The Huskies (5-1) shut out the Bobcats (1-5) in Hamden with a score of 5-0. The Huskies are ranked fourth nationally and have won the NCAA title five times in program history.
Coming into a big matchup, Quinnipiac Coach Becca Main said the team prepared all week but did not adjust to the Huskies’ sideline-to-sideline style of play fast enough.
“We wanted to be wider and more under them,” Main said. “It took us a good long while to get that going. We didn’t adjust quick enough to it even though we knew to expect it.”
UConn, who Main said is one of the best penalty corner teams in the country, got 14 penalty corners compared to Quinnipiac’s six. The Huskies were able to capitalize and score off two of their corners.
Freshman midfielder Sophie Hamilton and senior forward Svea Boker both notched two goals for the Huskies, with sophomore forward Maddy Wray adding one more.
The Huskies’ goal count would likely have been a lot higher if not for Bobcat goalkeeper Hedda Biermann-Ratjen, who had a career-high 10 saves in the match.
“Keeping calm and tracking the ball and realizing that keeping them to the outside is exactly what we wanted them to do [was important for the team],” Biermann-Ratjen said of how she and the team tried to slow down UConn’s offense.
After a loss, Main said it is important for the team to digest and recover, especially as the Bobcats have a quick turnaround as they host the University of Vermont on Sunday.
“[They] did do a lot of talking about taking ownership. We made a lot of key mistakes, some individual key mistakes,” Main said. “Taking ownership really does elevate everyone around you.”
Biermann-Ratjen agreed with Main about how the team can recover individually to come back together as a team.
“Some people need to breathe, some people need to talk, some people need to punch something,” Biermann-Ratjen said. “Give yourself a break. Analyze what you did wrong, what you did great, and how you can apply it to the next game.”
The Bobcats host the University of Vermont Catamounts (3-3) on Sunday in a non-conference matchup.
