Tribe Falls Victim to Hofstra

W&M will host No. 1-ranked North Carolina on Friday, Sept. 12, at 4 p.m.

10/07/07 4:30PM

Williamsburg - The William and Mary field hockey team dropped its fourth straight match, falling to Hofstra, 2-0, on Sunday afternoon at Busch Field. The Pride scored a pair of goals early in the contest and held on for the victory. W&M fell to 6-7 overall and 1-4 in the CAA, while Hofstra improved to 6-7 on the year and 2-3 in league play.

Hofstra scored a pair of goals in the opening 8:33 of the contest to take a commanding 2-0 lead. In the seventh minute of play, the Pride’s Kristin Thompson stole the ball from a W&M defender to set herself up with a breakaway, one-on-one chance with W&M goalkeeper Gwen Hunter. After carrying the ball into the circle, Thompson finished to the center of the boards from in close for her first goal of the season.

The Pride tacked on its second goal just over two minutes later off a rebound. After the initial Hofstra attempt was blocked by Hunter, Brit Blankmeyer jumped on the rebound and scored in the ninth minute of play.

The only W&M chance of the opening half came in the 20th minute of play. After a common foul along the left side, freshman Erica Eng slide the ball to senior Laura Kastelic, who sent it into the area toward the near post. Freshman Michelle Krewinghaus got a stick to the ball, but the attempt went wide of the near post.

After being outshot, 7-1, in the opening 35 minutes of play, the Tribe came out with renewed vigor, putting more pressure on the Hofstra cage in the second half. Despite outshooting the Pride, 10-5, in the second stanza, W&M could not draw any closer.

The Tribe attempted a pair of shots in the opening two minutes of the second half, but could not find the scoring column. Freshman Liz Loudy sent a shot from the right side of the circle that was blocked, but did draw a W&M corner in the 37th minute of play. Off the corner, Kastelic slid the ball back to senior midfielder Jes Kacerek on the right side of the circle, but her attempt was stopped by the Pride goalkeeper.

In the 52nd minute of play, the Tribe had two more solid chances to find the scoring column, but came up empty. Senior forward Kim Hedley raced into the area, before sending a pass to the left. The ball made its way to freshman Rebecca Wagner, who found Hedley in the middle of the crease. Hedley flipped a shot on goal, but Pride goalkeeper Nadine Surak made the stop. The Tribe did garner a penalty corner out of the opportunity. Off the corner, Surak made a kick save to deny Kacerek’s attempt from the right side.

With nine minutes remaining, Hunter made a pair of saves on back-to-back plays to keep the deficit at 2-0. Both shots in the sequence came from Charlia Warner as Hunter made kick saves on a shot from the right side in the run of play and from the left side off a penalty corner. Hunter finished with five saves on the afternoon.

W&M will return to action when it hosts No. 1-ranked North Carolina at Busch Field on Friday, Oct. 12. Game time is slated for 4 p.m.

Box Score