Last week, Temple field hockey defeated Virginia Commonwealth to end a five-game losing streak. The team looked superb in the victory and it seemed that their troubles were over.
Not so fast.
After a long weekend, losing two home games against Villanova and Saint Joseph’s, the teams record has fallen to 5-7.
The team has not looked the same since they opened the season 4-0. Fans are starting to wonder which team is for real? Is the team as good as they led us to believe in the beginning of the year or has the team’s struggle over the last month been a forecast of what’s to come?
“We still have confidence that we are a good field hockey team,” Coach Lauren Fuchs said when asked about her teams up and down season. “We might not be playing that well right now but we believe that there is more than enough time for us to get things back in order.”
The team came out flat Thursday against Villanova and the Wildcats took advantage of it. Villanova held Temple to one shot in the first half and a total of five in the game.
“This is totally inexcusable,” senior Kacy Ziomek said. “It is impossible to think that we can win a game against a good team without applying constant pressure.”
The Owls provided a stronger effort Saturday against St. Joe’s but the result remained the same. The Hawks opened the scoring early and the crowd was quickly silenced. But Temple was not about to give up this game.
Leading scorer Virginia Gonzalez fed a beautiful pass in front to sophomore Susan Nase, who tied the score at one. After the Hawks scored at the end of the first half, the Owls were desperately seeking a game-tying goal.
Ziomek got a pass out of a penalty corner and put the ball past goalie Lauren Bradley to even the game, 2-2.
For a brief moment the Owls had life, but it was not meant to last. Hawks junior Brett Dymarczyk scored unassisted with just 4:21 to play in regulation to give her team a 3-2 victory.
“This might have been are toughest loss all year,” Fuchs said. “The effort was clearly there today and we had plenty of opportunities to win. As a coach the only thing I’m disappointed in was the final score.”
Things aren’t going to get easier for the Owls as they play four of their next five games on the road.
“This is a crucial portion of the season,” goalie April Herman said. “Good teams find ways to win on the road and were going to find out a lot about ourselves over the next couple of weeks.”
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