It was a bittersweet game on as the Eagles lost their last regular season home game 2-1 against the College of William and Mary on Oct. 27.
“It’s always disappointing to lose, especially on senior day, but William and Mary did a really great job today,” head coach Steve Jennings said after the game.
Both AU (11-5, 5-0 PL) and the W&M Tribe (7-9,2-2 CAA) came out very aggressive in the first half with neither team possessing the ball in the offensive zone for more than two minutes.
AU doubled the Tribe’s shots on goal 7-3 and tripled the Tribe’s penalty corners 6-2. Only 10 minutes into the game, AU attempted three straight penalty corners, firing several balls at the goal without scoring once.
The lone goal in the first half came at 16:18 from W&M’s senior forward Taylor Hodge, who slapped in a pass off of a penalty corner, hitting an AU players stick and ricocheting into the top of the net.
Both teams came out equally competitive in the second half, forcing close shots on the opponents goals.
AU equaled the score just under 45 minutes into the game as junior midfielder Grace Wilson hammerednin a shot from a well-executed penalty corner with an assist by junior midfielder Rebecca Treharne.
That score sent the game into overtime as the 70th minute approached with both sides not backing down.
In overtime the Eagles failed to keep their poise, yielding three shots and playing most of the extra game time inside their own territory.
The game-ending goal came from and unassisted shot by W&M’s sophomore forward Pippin Saunders, her 20th goal of the season.
Before the game, AU honored seniors Jaclyn Anspach, Alex McMackin, Shelly Montgomery, Ashley Dalisera and Stephanie Burry.
Despite the loss, Jennings said he was proud of the seniors for their outstanding efforts.
“Their incredible people, students and players,” he said. “We’re so lucky to have them in our program, they’ve given us so much.”
The Eagles will enter the Patriot League playoffs with home-field advantage after gaining the No. 1 seed with a win Oct. 27 against Bucknell.
“I think we’ve done a great job[throughout the season] on getting our defensive structure a lot stronger and a lot better,” Jennings said. “Today we fell a little bit away from some of those principles but for the most part we’ve done a great job on that and I think we’ve gotten a lot better on our pressing.”
The Eagles will host the to-be-determined No. 4 seed Oct. 8 at Jacobs Field.
“Hopefully we will be able to close out on a little bit of a happier note here on Jacobs Field next game as we compete for the Patriot League Championship,” Jennings said.
