The Lafayette Field Hockey team will load up the vans for a Saturday tournament in Philadelphia at Penn. The action will start at 11:30 with a round robin between four teams. Lafayette, Penn, Rider and Virginia. For Penn, this will be their last competition of the spring having already met Penn State and Bucknell. The other teams have not published their spring schedule. Lafayette met Monmouth the last week in a full game with practice shoot outs afterwards.
Each team will be looking to improve from last year and provide a more consistent winning posture. Lafayette was 8-11, Penn was 9-8, Rider was 11-8 and Virginia was 9-10. Penn had a very ambitious schedule with a signature win early in the season against Wake Forest. However Lafayette was to beat them 2-1 in Easton during the Pard late season resurgence. Rider was 11-8 having won against VCU, Lehigh, and Lock Haven while absorbing losses to Drexel, Colgate, and App State. Virginia was 9-10 while playing in the tough ACC. They did lose out of conference games to ODU, Penn State and Liberty but did pick up a win against Maryland who is now a Big Ten School.
The differences in stats are interesting. Lafayette scored 39 goals, Penn 22, Rider 50 and Virginia 29. Goals against Lafayette 55, Penn 29, Rider 38 and Virginia 30. Shots taken were similar only Penn took 189 while the rest were around 235. Keep in mind the Ivy League does not have a league tournament. Saves percentages were similar with Penn and Lafayette in the 60’s, while Rider and Virginia were in the mid 70’s.
It should be an interesting afternoon as the Leopards will again test their bench and depth. I wlll be looking to see a tightened defense against these competitive teams. Penn will certainly be stepping up as this is their last competition until the fall and against Lafayette will want to avenge last year’s loss. Rider will be interesting as they will want to keep their high scoring offense going. Virginia will try to build consistency in their attack as well.
Here’s hoping for some good weather .
Lafayette College Field Hockey 