ELIZABETH SULLIVAN, Special to The Denisonian — History seems to be repeating itself this season with Denison women’s field hockey, as they continue to play their hearts out on the field, after finishing last year with 18-3 overall record.
So far, overall they are at 6-1 after playing Oberlin and Rhodes this past weekend.
Before both games on Saturday and Sunday, they came out singing ‘Build Me Up Buttercup’ as it is their home game ritual, and it set the tone. They looked ready to play, and win.
In Saturday’s game against Oberlin, Abby Scully ‘21 and Charlotte Godfrey ‘21 each scored two goals, and AC Veith ‘22 and Meg Balyis ’23 each scored one goal.
Their hard work along with assists made by Charlotte Happel ‘20, Ali Gakenheimer ‘20, and Abby Scully ‘21 brought the final score to 6-0.
The defense showed their strength during this game also by preventing any shots being taken on the goal by Oberlin, while Denison’s offense took 16 shots on goal.
It was a dominant display, something pretty characteristic of thie Denison squad. This was their fourth shutout of the season and third in a row.
One of the senior players, Ali Gakenheimer, said about Saturday’s game, “Today was another strong win.
We did a great job of communicating, finishing in the goal, transferring in the back field, but most importantly having fun.
We are excited to play tomorrow and propel this momentum for the rest of the season.”
Sunday’s game against Rhodes, however, was more of a nailbiter for Big Red. Rhodes’ put up a tough fight after getting the first goal in during the second quarter. In the last quarter Denison’s Caroline Little ‘20 scored during a penalty point, which tied the game and led to overtime.
Luckily, Abby Scully ‘21 scored in the first few minutes of overtime.
Although it was a challenging game, big red got a big win.
AC Veith ‘22 said, “Coming off of a great season last year, we knew we had to work harder and push ourselves to excel from the start of preseason.
I think that effort and depth of our bench showed on the field today since we had contributions from everyone on the team.
We hope to continue our positive growth as we go into our next few competitive games.”
This competitive spirit is what has driven these girls to win the NCAA championships the past two years.
However competitive, they still maintain good character and sportsmanship with the other teams and each other.
This team of girls is intentionally made up of kindhearted athletes who strive to become better players on the field and people off the field.
The sportsmanship and kindness towards their teammates and those on the opposite teams prove the kind of ideals and vision that the girls and the coaches have for themselves, the program and the Denison community.
You can catch the Big Red next this upcoming Wednesday when they host Ohio Wesleyan at 5 p.m. at Deeds Field.