It was all smiles for the five seniors on the women’s field hockey team Sunday when their parents greeted them on the field. The parents and other attendees had come to honor the members of the class of 2016 in the last home game of the season for Bruno (7-9, 1-5 Ivy).
When Emily Arciero ’16 was introduced and made an elaborate wave to the fans at Senior Day, more smiles and laughter animated the faces of the Bears. For the first time all season, those smiles never wavered. Brown earned its first shutout all season and scored three well-timed goals to ensure that a winning result was never really in doubt, as it topped Lehigh 3-0.
“Our senior class is pretty special,” Miller said. Though “our record wasn’t glorious, we wanted to put our final marks on the program.”
Bruno only took 10 minutes to get on the board first, scoring a well-orchestrated goal off of a penalty corner. It was a tally crafted by seniority, as Co-Captain Anna Masini ’16 inserted the ball to Arciero, who slid the ball to Co-Captain Alexis Miller ’16, who put a rocket past the Mountain Hawks’ (5-13) goalie. This marked the third time that the combination of Masini, Arciero and Miller had scored this season, accounting for three out of Masini’s seven assists on the year.
Bruno thoroughly dominated the first half, registering six corners to Lehigh’s zero while firing off 10 shots to Lehigh’s one. A well-placed cross from Katarina Angus ’17.5 just missed Masini’s stick at the back post, and Lucy Green ’17 created a few chances before the halftime whistle.
The second half saw Lehigh hang around for about eight minutes before Angus essentially put the game away with a blistering shot past the Lehigh goalie. Masini and Arciero contributed on the assists.
Brown continued to take it to Lehigh but was pushed back a little more than in the first half. Leah Zavalick ’17, Ashley Waldron ’18 and Maddie Ayles ’19 combined with Masini and Angus excellently on defense, with Zavalick especially standing out.
Arciero capped off her incredible day with a third assist on the Bears’ final goal of the game: a beautifully worked corner that Hannah Rogers ’16 tipped in. Arciero faked like she was setting the ball up for Angus, took the ball to the side and fired a shot to the back post that latched onto Rogers’ stick.
The sentiment around the field was one of relief for the entire game. The contest marked not only the first not-one-goal win for the Bears this year, but also the first time all year that they had held a lead of more than one goal. Katie Hammaker ’19 held firm at the back, pitching her first shutout of the year as Brown took the game 3-0.
“The last few games, we gave up a few fluky goals,” Miller said. “We weren’t going to allow ourselves to be in that situation and put Katie in those situations for shots to go on her. We needed to step up, and that’s what we did.”
The Bears fell 2-1 to Penn Saturday. Jaclyn Torres ’17, a Herald senior staff writer, scored a cheeky goal over an onrushing goalie. But the Quakers (13-2, 5-1 Ivy) struck with two goals in two minutes in the second half to top Brown.
Brown takes on Yale in its final game of the season next weekend.
