There’s something about being at home that makes everything seem better.
The Saint Louis University field hockey team returns from two losses on the road and hopes to have a better showing this weekend at home. On Friday, the Billikens played Northwestern, and Friday they played Ball State.
Northwestern took control of the game from the start, outshooting the the Billikens 18-3.
Northwestern’s Candace Cooper recorded a hat trick by scoring her first goal against the Bills at the 1:27 mark.
Cooper then went to score two more goals later in the game. One goal was off an assist, and the other was off a goalie deflection. Morgan Kuhn and Ellen Shlafly scored for the Wildcats.
“They scored right away and caught us off guard,” junior Lindsay Lombardo said. “There was a call from the refs that confused us.”
The referee’s were calling lots of pushing and obstruction calls on Saint Louis. “A lot of calls the refs made in the first half were for pushing. We have a very aggressive defense,” said Lomdardo. “We hold our position and the refs were calling us on it when they usually let us play.”
At halftime the coaches “talked to us about our mental game and how we needed to get it back for the second half,” Lombardo said. The Billikens then went on to let the Wildcats score one goal in the second half.
“We controlled the ball more in the second half,” Lombardo said.
The Billikens on Sunday then played Ball State. According to the most recent STX/NFHCA National Poll, Ball State was ranked 23rd. The Bills only took five shots while the Cardinals took 25 shots.
Ball State’s Afton Hess registered her first collegiate hat trick and added another goal to lead the Cardinals to an 8-0 victory over Saint Louis.
Ball State’s Holly Frantz also had two goals and Allison Haynes added a flip shot from the front of the cage at the 28:18 mark. The Cardinals’ final goal was scored by Merri McKissock.
According to Lombardo the goals for this game were to “execute 16-yard free hits and get the ball more.” Lombardo said, “We were able to move the ball down the 50-yard line a lot better.”
At the end of the first half the score was 6-0. In the second half the Bills were able to hold them to only two goals and there were no goals in the last 13 minutes of the match.
“We had better passing combinations and we played better than we did on Friday,” Lombardo said
The next game will be today against Lindenwood at 7:00 p.m. in St. Charles.
This weekend the team will have their alumni game at the Anheuser-Busch Center at 2:00 p.m.
Next Friday, Oct. 4, the team will play Stanford and there will be shuttles leaving for the game at 2:30 p.m. The game will start at 3:00 p.m.
“We want a lot of people to come,” said Lombardo. “We are really excited, this is a big game for us.”
