After going undefeated in the Patriot League regular season, the American University field hockey team (12-8, 6-0) lost against the Lafayette Leopards (5-1, 14-6) in the Patriot League Championship game 2-1 after a sudden-death overtime goal on Nov. 9.
Before the championship game, the two teams faced each other this season on Sept. 27, where the Eagles defeated the Leopards on the road in Easton in a thrilling double overtime 1-0 win.
In typical AU fashion, they opened the game coming out aggressive on the offensive side, earning themselves a penalty corner only 17 seconds into the game. After freshman defender Olivia Morraye put the ball into play, senior forward Federica Turina Dellamagiore got a shot off, but the ball went just wide of the goal. After, there weren’t many opportunities created by any of the teams for the rest of the quarter. Both teams focused on their defense, not wanting to go down early.
In the second quarter, both teams tried to create more opportunities but both the Eagles and Leopards defense prevailed. But as the quarter dwindled down, Lafayette started to put extra pressure on American, receiving 3 corners in a row. On the third corner, with 3:12 remaining on the clock, the Leopards attempted to get a shot off, but graduate student goalkeeper Brynn Underwood made a magnificent save with her stick that prevented Lafayette from capitalizing on any of those opportunities.
Going into halftime, the game was still scoreless, with each team recording similar stats. The Eagles had 4 shots and 1 save, while the Leopards had 3 shots and 2 saves.
Throughout the first five minutes of the third quarter, Lafayette maintained the majority of possession, trying to slow down the pace of the game. However, the Eagles kept fighting, trying to win possession of the ball and create chances, but they couldn’t capitalize on any of their 5 shots in the quarter. Before the end of the quarter though, Lafayette was awarded a corner with 19 seconds left, but Underwood made another crucial save that ended the quarter. Going into the fourth, the game was still scoreless.
The fourth quarter is where the Eagles really picked up their offense. With support and cheers from the faithful home crowd getting louder, sophomore forward Jordan Reicher tripped up in the shooting circle, resulting in a penalty for American with 9:10 remaining in the match. Senior midfielder Agustina Roffo received the ball off the corner, and got the shot off that ricocheted right into the goal, to give the Eagles their first lead of the game. That was her eighth goal of the season.
But with 5:27 left in the fourth, a Lafayette forward was hit and injured in American’s shooting circle. After she was helped off the field by Lafayette training staff, the Leopards were awarded a penalty stroke. Lafayette sophomore midfielder Stella Malinowski scored the stroke tying the game at 1 goal apiece.
Neither team could score before the end of regulation and the game went into sudden death overtime. With 6:21 on the clock in overtime, the Leopards were awarded a corner and Lafayette sophomore forward Lea Good scored off the corner, securing the win for the Leopards with a final score of 2-1. Lafayette fans immediately rushed the field and celebrated with their team as they were crowned Patriot League Champions.
Postgame, American head coach Steve Jennings was disappointed that his team couldn’t be crowned champions, but was still extremely proud of his players.
“They're just the most amazing student athletes you could ever hope to be working with. And day to day, they give you so much joy,” Jennings said. “They put all their heart and soul into being on this team and everything they do in the classroom and in life. So that's the thing that I always reflect on. That's the biggest win that we get, and we get that every day whether we're playing a game or not.”
The Eagles plan to regroup and reflect on both this loss and the season to move forward going into the next season.
“We'll have to have a debrief on the whole year and see what we need to pick and choose, but there's always lessons that we have to learn. It's really hard to win and it's really, really hard to win a final. We put ourselves in a great position, and we weren't able to kinda close the deal out. But that’ll be something that we'll reflect on later on. We have a little bit more time to look back on that season in totality, not just this particular game and I'm sure we'll come up with a game plan and try to go forward,” Jennings said.
Though the season ended on a disappointing loss, the Eagles walked away with multiple major Patriot League awards. Jennings won Patriot League Coach of the Year for the twelfth time in his career. The Eagles' First Team All-Patriot League athletes included Underwood, Roffo and senior defender Tayla Jayde-Weiss and Reicher was named to the conference's second team. Morraye won the Rookie of the Year award, and Underwood also finished her collegiate career winning Scholar-Athlete of the Year and Goalkeeper of the Year.
American’s season ended with a final record of 12-8, and scored a total of 38 games. Roffo led the team with 8 goals and Reicher was right behind her with 7. Their season included some magical moments, walk off wins and defensive masterclasses. The Eagles will look to come back next season as a strong team, and maintain their culture of excellence that Jennings has instilled into this program.
This article was edited by Connor Sturniolo, Delaney Hoke and Abigail Turner. Copy editing done by Luna Jinks and Sabine Kanter-Huchting.
