The field hockey team lost its second conference matchup this season, falling 2–1 to Nazareth College on Saturday. The Bombers are now 3–4 on the season.
“It’s just a little frustrating. Sometimes it goes your way sometimes it doesn’t,” junior forward Heather Kozimor said. “We just need to clean things up and play our game.”
Nazareth scored first in the opening minutes of the game, when Nazareth sophomore midfielder Kailee O’Hara carried the ball from the left side and shot it into the corner of the goal.
The Bombers tied the game five minutes later when sophomore forward Tracy Rivas scored off of the rebound of senior forward Katie Brown’s shot.
In the team huddle at halftime the team talked about ways to improve play and keep possession. The Bombers wanted to focus on overturning the ball less and effective communication.
“We were definitely focusing on what we could do better,” Rivas said. “But at the same time we were motivating each other to do well, communicate and just be there. I think that after halftime we were able to pick it up a lot faster and we were able to keep our heads high despite the fact that we were down by one.”
Nazareth scored the only goal in the second half on a corner play. Nazareth sophomore midfielder Lindsey Smith passed to senior midfielder Julie Davis who scored.
The Bombers had two penalty corners at the end of the game with no time left on the clock but they were not able to score the equalizer.
“The last two corners were executed nicely,” freshman forward Sam English said. “We just didn’t finish.”
Nazareth outshot the Blue and Gold 13–11. Nazareth also had the advantage in penalty corners 16–6.
Sophomore goalie Kelly Singleton recorded eight saves and allowed two goals. Nazareth senior goalie Kelsey Evans had seven saves and allowed one goal.
Despite dropping two conference matches already this season, the Bombers will be looking to improve on that mark the rest of the way out Rivas said.
“We just want to keep looking forward. We want to take the lessons we learned in this game and apply it to the next game and the next game,” Rivas said. “That’s all we can do really.”
The Bombers have four Empire 8 games remaining on their schedule this season.
The Blue and Gold return to action on the road at 4 p.m. Saturday against SUNY–Oneonta.
