The Saint Louis University field hockey team is set to travel to Philadelphia this weekend to compete in two Atlantic 10 Conference matches against La Salle and West Chester. The Billikens, who dropped their first two A-10 games last weekend against St. Joseph’s and Temple, look to kick off conference road action on a different note.
“This weekend, we need to work on getting intensity and keeping it for the full 70 minutes of play,” freshman forward Kelsey Shultz said. “We have had problems with that this season. Keeping intensity up this season is something that we have had problems with, and it is something we have had to work on and think about a lot.”
Coach Marcie Boyer said that the team is focused on capitalizing on its chances to score during the game.
“Every chance has the potential to turn the game around and help us to win,” Boyer said. “We need to take advantage of every chance and put every chance into the back of the cage.”
Boyer said that the Billikens’ season has been disappointing thus far, with a current 2-12 record. Winning this weekend’s matches is crucial for the team in order to turn its season around, according to Boyer.
“Looking strictly at our record, this season is definitely a disappointment,” Boyer said. “However, the record doesn’t show how much I’ve seen this team grow or how much potential that this team really does have.”
The team looks to move on from their losses this weekend and get a good result in Pennsylvania. A win would break the team’s seven-game losing streak. Shultz said that these losses are a learning experience for the team and can be viewed as leverage for improvement.
“Every loss has taught us so much about ourselves as players and, more importantly, as a team,” Shultz said. “We stepped up to play some difficult teams, and we just did not get the wins. But playing those teams has made us better prepared for the Atlantic 10 Conference games, and hopefully the results will start showing that.”
The team now focuses on the final five games of the season. As these games are all within the conference, the potential for making the A-10 tournament still exists, according to Boyer. The team must win four of the last five match-ups in order to secure a spot in the postseason tournament.
“Our goal coming into this season was to make the Atlantic 10 tournament,” Boyer said. “The record that we have at this point does not change that goal, it only makes it harder to achieve. There is a lot of pressure on these final five games, but it is a challenge that I know this team is capable of reaching.”
Boyer said the Billikens are at the same level of play as the next five teams, but that it is a matter of proving on the field that they are a better team than they have shown previously.
Stringing together four wins in five games is a feat that the Bills have not approached during this season; however, the team still focuses on salvaging its weak record by getting positive results from the final five matches.
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?”Besides making it to the A-10 tournament, we are really focused on the details of the game,” Shultz said. “We want to continue to improve as individual players and as a team.”
