After opening up their 2019 season with four straight losses, the Drexel University field hockey team secured its first win in a home match against Bryant University at Buckley Recreational Field. The Dragons owned the field that Sunday night, with 16 of 25 attempted shots being on target. Bryant was limited to two corners, while Drexel had 15. Sophomore attacking midfielder Emily Owens put the Drag-ons up one in the first quarter.
Sophomore Avery Powell followed Owens’ lead minutes later, putting another ball away with help from senior attacking midfielder Tess Horan. The second quarter saw more firepower from Drexel, with freshman forward Cailey Lever scoring. This time it was Powell who dished out the help, knocking a ball in for Lever to hit through a compromised Bryant defense. Sophomore defender Puk Thewessen scored twice in the third quarter off of two corner kicks. The first came from senior back Katie Bagdon, while the second was provided by senior midfielder Tess Bernheimer.
Bagdon herself got on the board in the last quarter, scoring off of a touch from freshman midfielder Isabel Jacobs, who was awarded her first collegiate point for her efforts. Red shirt sophomore keeper Alexis Sokach had a relatively stress free day in the cage, picking up three saves across the hour of play. Drexel returned to action Sept. 20 at Monmouth University, where they were on the end of a beatdown much like the one they handed Bryant. Monmouth had two goals in the first quarter, putting Drexel in a slump early which the Dragons couldn’t climb out of.
Drexel had a moment of hope in the third quarter, when the squad allowed only one shot from Monmouth. The Dragons were down by three at this point, but the show of resil- ience sparked confidence in the players that they could make up ground in the last quarter. Unfortunately for Drexel, Monmouth came out with a lot of gas left in the tank, taking home two more goals as insurance. Sokach started and played until the fourth quarter, when she was replaced by freshman Megan Hadfield for the rest of the gameplay. Powell led the team in shots with three.
Temple University hosted Drexel Sept. 22, in a back and forth struggle that could have gone either way. The Owls took the game by one goal in the end. Drexel went down early in the first again, but equalized before halftime. Powell tied the score after Thewessen put a ball into the middle from the corner. Temple only had two shots in the third quarter but scored on both of them, putting Drexel down 3-1. With ten minutes to go, Bagdon put Drexel within range to win. The senior stepped up to take a penalty kick, which she put away with a strong hit. Despite a 18-7 shot taken ratio against Temple, Drexel couldn’t push the score past 3-2.
The Dragons will take to Buckley Field again Sept. 29 to take on the University of California, Berkeley Golden Bears.