For the women’s field hockey team, a period of sustained success against any perennial opponent has remained elusive. Brown’s longest winning streak against an Ivy team in the last five years has been a two-game stretch against Harvard, in which the Bears won 2-1 and 4-3 in consecutive years.
But against Holy Cross, Brown (6-6, 1-2 Ivy) has enjoyed an extensive period of victorious matchups. The Bears had topped the Crusaders (6-8, 1-2 Patriot) for seven straight years coming into this season. Bruno’s last loss against Holy Cross came on Oct. 24, 2007.
“When we got here, Holy Cross was definitely a less skilled team,” said co-captain Alexis Miller ’16. “So we always went into that game pretty comfortable. Over the past couple of years, they’ve gotten a lot better. But we’re still confident every time we play them that we can beat them.”
With an eight-year winning streak on the line, the Bears welcomed the Crusaders to Providence Wednesday hungry for a win after suffering a disappointing loss at the hands of the Crimson in Cambridge last weekend.
Hannah Rogers ’16 kept her solid season going and opened the scoring with a goal 11 minutes into the contest, benefitting from a deflection off of a Holy Cross defender that sent the ball past the Crusader goalie.
A three-goal spree started 13 minutes later, when Holy Cross got its first goal of the game courtesy of Emily Loprete. Lucy Green ’17 restored the Bears’ one-goal cushion three minutes later with an assist from Rogers. But the Crusaders tied the game just five minutes later, when Lauren Ineson got behind the Brown defense and finished coolly past goalie Katie Hammaker ’19.
The first half featured a lot of offense in a fairly open game, and all of the goal production was generated from open play. Holy Cross went 0-2 on penalty corners in the first half while Brown failed to register a single corner.
The second half was very similar to the first, as Rogers scored the opening goal. Rachel Lanouette ’19 played an incisive pass into Rogers, who turned and finished right past the Crusader goalie. It was the first-year’s first point of the season and the fifth point for Rogers on the day — taking Rogers into the team lead with 13 total points on the season.
Rogers is “a really dangerous player,” Miller said. “Her stick work is unique to her and her speed kills. She’s really hungry around the net, and that has led to goals.”
It took Holy Cross 12 minutes to recover, but it finally equalized at the 51:57 mark with a Maureen Connolly goal. The usual defensive partnership of co-captain Anna Masini ’16, Leah Zavalick ’17, Maddie Ayles ’19 and Katarina Angus ’17.5 did not play most of the game together because of increased subbing, but the second half featured a much more improved defensive effort than the first.
Brown responded as it had all game — quickly — as Ellie Seid ’19 got her fourth goal of the year only five minutes after the Crusader goal. The first-year took the ball on the side, used her speed — as she has done all year — and snuck the ball under the outstretched Crusader goalie. The Bears held on to extend their winning streak over Holy Cross, as the game finished 4-3.
“We only have one nonleague game left,” Masini said. “So getting a solid offensive effort and good defense before we move into some more serious Ivy League games was important. We can learn from our mistakes and take that forward, especially into games like Princeton.”
On Saturday, the Bears will take on the Tigers, a team they have not beaten in the last 15 years.
“This is the first year since I’ve been here that we can say that we can beat them,” Masini said. “Goals are going to happen on both sides, but we just have to play our game, and we’re confident that we can come out on top.”
