Our Fairfield University Field Hockey team travelled to New York, N.Y. on Oct. 14 to compete against the Columbia University Lions. Not even two minutes into play in the first period, Columbia picked up a point to give them an early lead when Columbia’s Brooke Gasser fired a sharp shot at Stag goalie Caitlin Gilligan ‘19, who couldn’t save it.
Columbia played off of their momentum and fired four more shots. Fairfield’s Malen Iglesias ‘22 finally responded and shots, but was ultimately blocked. Fairfield registered two more shots and, on their fourth, Corrine Persichetti ‘19 scored on Columbia goalkeeper Katie Dempsey with 27 minutes 41 seconds left on the clock. The goal was assistless. This was her third goal of the season.
Just one minute and 27 seconds after, Columbia midfielder Emma Wiklund restored their lead and earned her first goal of the season. The sum total remained stagnant for 12 minutes and 17 seconds. In that time, the Stags outshot the Lions 3-1. Fairfield’s own Emma Matlach ‘21 tallied her ninth goal in her 15th game this season. On defense, Luzi Persiehl ‘22 takes credit for the assist. The German natives contributed to the continuation of the cat-and-mouse game and matched their adversaries’ score.
Fairfield’s Sam Giordano ‘19 finished off scoring in the second period with a hard shot from the left wing off the corner. She created a two point scoring streak and secured a leg up for her team as they entered the second period. The score was 3-2 Stags at halftime.
After an actionless first 14 minutes of the second period of play, previous point scorers Matlach and Persiehl worked together to assist Cassie Hughes ‘19, who created a two goal deficit for the Lions. There were twenty minutes left in regulation. 58:04 minutes had passed and Columbia’s Emily Maclean ‘22 answered back off of the corner with an assist credited to Kelly McCarthy ‘20 and Kelsey Farkas ‘21. The score was 4-3 with Fairfield still in the lead. Seconds above two minutes later, Farkas made the assist on another goal, this time by Jennifer Trieschman ‘20 who scored with a hard shot from the top of the key, which evened the score at 4-4. Hughes ‘was shown a green card at 68:43 and the game was forced to continue into overtime, following 70 minutes played.
Overtime began and Fairfield out-shot Columbia 4-0 in the 10 extra minutes, but they did not emerge victorious. They were forced to preserve their drive to win through a second overtime period. This time the Stags maintained possession in double overtime. They added six shots to their previous four. They destroyed Columbia in shots 10-0 but still failed to finish the game and had to pursue a sudden death round in a shootout. When the penalty strokes were over, Columbia’s Jaimie McCormick secured her school’s victory.
Fairfield University’s record is currently 10-5. Their next opportunity to break the three game losing streak is at 4 p.m. on Oct. 19 when they host Monmouth University.
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