Owls defeat conference rival Friars in shootout

Temple Field Hockey (10-3, 3-1 Big East Conference) defeated Providence College (5-7, 2-2 Big East Conference) 2-1 in a shootout after two scoreless overtimes at the Temple Sports Complex on Friday afternoon. Despite failing to convert on their ten corner attempts, the Owls came up with a strong defensive performance.

KEY PLAYS

• With five minutes remaining in the second quarter, Providence senior midfielder Nora Goddard-Despot scored off a Temple turnover on a breakaway to put the Friars up 1-0.
• Six minutes into the third quarter, Providence junior goaltender Asia Porter kept the Friars in the lead by saving a shot from Owls’ graduate student forward Tali Popinko.
• Just 49 seconds into the final quarter, Owls’ sophomore midfielder Tess Muller scored on a rebound to tie the game 1-1.
• Late into the overtime period, Temple graduate student defender Nienke Oerlemans came up with a defensive save to keep the game tied.
• Senior goaltender Molly Frey made a kick save with less than five minutes remaining in double overtime to keep the game tied.
• Temple freshman midfielder Agustina Tucceri scored the game winning goal in the shootout to give the Owls their third conference win.

THE NUMBERS

• Frey finished with four saves, pushing her season total to 33.
• Goddard-Despot finished with one goal, her first of the season.
• Muller finished with one goal, her fourth of the season.
• Temple finished with ten penalty corner attempts but were not able to convert any.

WORDS FROM THE TEAM

“I was nervous because I realized that the referees were saying that if I scored we would win,” Tucceri said. “When I was with the ball, the nerves just disappeared and I was just like this is just practice, like against [Frey].”

“I feel like we made it very hard for ourselves by not capitalizing on corners,” Muller said. “We knew that the last quarter was our last chance to put something out there and I feel like we did that and we just fought hard and gave everything.”

WORDS FROM COACH

“There were five corners that we didn’t execute for either lack of execution or not understanding the call from the sideline,” said head coach Michelle Vittese. “We just gotta be better about it.”

ON TAP

The Owls will look to build off their win when they take on Big East rival Liberty University (8-4, 4-0 Big East Conference) on Friday, Oct. 14 at 4 p.m. in Lynchburg, Virginia.