WILLIAMSTOWN, MA- The Williams women's field hockey team (5-7) fell to Union (7-7) in a heated overtime on Thursday night.
Eph sophomore Cary Hairfield (Richmond, VA) scored her team's only goal of the night 16:11 into the first half, in a clean unassisted shot. Taking advantage of a penalty corners, Union junior Ali Flake caught her team up at 30:27 assisted by senior Caroline Moran. The Bulldogs pressed hard for the rest of the half, earning several more penalty corners, but the Williams defense was able to hold the game at a tie.
The Ephs came out firing in the second half, immediately earning a penalty corner on Union. The strong offense, lead by sophomore Caitlin Conlin (Sudbury, MA) and first-year Annie VanWagenen (Rye, NY), consistently kept the ball in play on the Union side. However, Union's strong defense kept the Ephs at bay, despite Williams' game total of fifteen shots on goal to Union's five.
As the clock ran out with the game still tied at 1-1, the Ephs and Bulldogs entered overtime. Despite heated battles up and down the field with VanWagenen and her fellow forward Katie Jolin (Guilford, CT) and some beautiful defense by Hairfield, Moran made her second goal of the night at 81:56.
Williams earned seven penalty corners to Union's five, with five of those earned in the second half. Eph goalkeeper Ariana Spiliotes (Bethesda, MD) made one save, while Union goalkeeper Molly McCune made nine. Both played the entire game.
"If we had played the first half the way we did the second, we could have had the game. We turned it on in the second half, but we still couldn't convert in the circle. Union is tough, and they played beautifully. We're going to keep on trying, though," says head coach Alix Barrale.
The Ephs will next see action on Saturday in a 1pm home game on Renzie-Lambe field against Tufts.
