Field hockey gets fired up

A bad bounce was the cause of the only goal scored against the women’s field hockey team in three games this past weekend. The three-game road trip saw the Gaels go 2-0-1, scoring 10 goals and allowing only one.

The Gaels opened the weekend in Nepean against McGill, winning in convincing fashion 7-0. Janette Leroux, a 4th year centre, led the Gaels offense with a hat trick.

“McGill has been struggling a bit this year,” head coach Chris McArdle said. “They’re in the midst of rebuilding.”

“Though it was a good performance in that we got the job done promptly,” he added.

The second game of the weekend would prove far more challenging, as the Gaels faced the undefeated York Lions on Sunday. In five games this season, the Lions have scored 15 goals and allowed only one.

The last meeting between the two teams saw a decisive 3-0 in favour of the Lions, but this game would be different.

The Gaels went up 1-0 on a brilliant goal by midfielder Kirsten Jewell, who is playing her third year on the team. Jewell took the ball from halfway and bypassed four defenders en route to the net.

McArdle said it was amazing.

“[Jewell] is one of the stars of the team,” he said. “It’s been a bit of a coming-out weekend for her.”

But with two minutes remaining, York was able to equalize the match, evening the score at 1.

“We got a bad bounce and it led to the late goal,” McArdle said. “But it was good to take points away from that match.”

Playing in their second game of the day, the Gaels faced the Carleton Ravens, who had already played three games that weekend.

“It was a bit of a sloppy game,” McArdle said. “We didn’t play as well as we had throughout the weekend.”

McArdle said that despite their fatigue, the Gaels dominated the first half of the match but didn’t have any goals to show for it.

Rookie Emily Newton opened the scoring shortly into the second half. Newton currently shares the scoring lead for on the team.

With seven minutes left to play, the Gaels scored their second goal, hammering the final nail in the coffin and securing their second victory of the weekend.

The final score was 2-0.

The two wins bring the Gaels’ record to 4-2-2, good for third place in the OUA. McArdle said with the high turnover from last year it seemed like the Gaels were going to be in for a tough season.

“It looked like it could be a rebuilding year,” he said, referring to the eight rookies on the team. “But we’re going to be in the thick of things this year.”

He said that, although the women struggled to produce offensively in their first few games, they were progressing rapidly.

“We’re starting to look a lot more dangerous now.”