Bates Student: Sports: Field hockey finishes solid season

- November 6, 1998

Field Hockey finishes solid season with first ever ECAC berth

By SHAWN P. O'LEARY
Editor-In-Chief

The season has come to a close for the suprising Women's Field Hockey team (7-8). The Bobcats earned their first ever trip to the ECAC tournament following a dramatic triple overtime victory over the White Mules of Colby last weekend. Their first ECAC match-up was no pushover in that they were pitted against the powerhouse Springfield club, The Pride (19-4).

The Bobcats, seeded seventh in the tournament, battled the second seeded Pride to a scoreless tie through the first stanza of play before the Springfield women broke the game open with five second stanza goals, four coming in a five minute span. The impressive season of the Bates Field Hockey team was the first for coach Wynn Hohlt. Of the Bobcats' eight losses this season, seven came at the hands of teams ranked amongst the top 25 in the nation.

After dropping the first four games of the season, the field hockey team went on a tear, winning seven of the last ten games of the regular season. The last came at the expense of Colby in a thrilling matchup.

The Bobcats and Mules ended the first two stanzas of play with a 2-2 tie, with the Bates goals coming from Kate Orellana '00 and Sarah McGrath '01 in the second stanza. Two scoreless overtime periods followed, leading to a penalty shot decision in which Bates took a 2-1 advantage to secure the victory. Bobcat goalie Peggy Ficks '01 made sixteen saves in the dramatic win.

"We really hung in there under constant pressure through double and then triple OT," said Wendy Zimmerman '99. "We have a history of not finishing well, but this game showed that we have finally learned to stick to the win. It may have taken us the entire season to get to that point, but we did it."

Back To Index