Temple Field Hockey (2-1, 0-0 Big East) suffered its first loss of the season to Yale (1-0, 0-0 Ivy League) at Howarth Field on Friday night. Yale scored early on, and that turned out to be all the team needed to win.
Five minutes into the second quarter, a bouncing ball from Yale midfielder Nicloe Gotthardt off a corner penalty found its way past Temple goalkeeper Molly Frey for the game’s only goal.
Temple put together an impressive performance despite the score. The Owls hung in with the Bulldogs, applying offensive pressure for most of the game, but they could not get past goalkeeper Luanna Summer.
“To be honest, I will take a loss that looks like that rather than the other way where we are not actually in the game,” said Temple head coach Michelle Vittese. “The stat line shows how it was. It was 13-2 on corners, and one of their two chances went in.”
The Owls put up 16 shots throughout the game, eight of which were on target. Summer registered eight saves, keeping her composure as nine different Temple players recorded at least one shot. Midfielder Agustina Tucceri led the way with four, while midfielder Tess Muller and forward Amber Hofenk Jerembo each put two shots on goal.
“We could have controlled the opportunities in the field better, and we could have been in better circle positions and attack positions around the circle to compete,” Vittese said. “We did not seem like we had the real intent to win, and we were just waiting for the game to come to us.”
All that pressure around the net led to 13 corner penalties for Temple, including five in a row during the first quarter, but the Owls were unable to capitalize on their opportunities.
Temple’s defense had another strong showing. Yale was only able to get three shots the whole game, and the Bulldogs were limited to just two corner penalties. Back McKenna Burkhardt led the defense with good clearances and by constantly getting in the way of Yale’s pressure.
“Our defense worked well today,” Burkhardt said. “We learned a lot from this past weekend and fixed those things we needed to work on. I thought our defense really capitalized on what we could in this game.”
Things will not get any easier for Temple as they play No. 6 Virginia (2-1, 0-0 Atlantic Coast Conference) on Sunday at 12 p.m. at Howarth Field.
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