This weekend the Northwestern field hockey team faced two ranked opponents at home and came away winless.
The Wildcats fell to No. 19 Penn State 6-3 on Friday and loss 5-1 to No. 3 Duke on Sunday in their final homestand of the season.
The defeats drop the Cats’ (7-10, 1-4 Big Ten) record against ranked opponents to 0-7 and extends their season-worst losing streak to four games.
“We have talked about having a belief in ourselves,” coach Kelly McCollum said. “If you don’t have the edge to start, you can’t win.”
On Friday, Michele Rigby led the visiting Nittany Lions (9-8, 3-2) to victory with hat trick.
After giving up four goals on 16 shots, junior goalie Kelly Augustine was replaced by sophomore Sherri-Anne Nyberg 12 minutes into the second half.
Penn State then scored twice on Nyberg on three shots.
“We have had issues with goalkeeping,” McCollum said. “I don’t feel that giving up six goals signifies good goalkeeping.”
After surrendering 21 goals in its first 13 games, NU has allowed 19 goals in its last four contests.
“We have been trying to change a couple of things in practice,” sophomore Meghan Small said. “We still need more practice with the adjustments we are trying to make.”
Junior Ellen Schlafly put NU on the board two minutes before halftime, cutting the deficit to 2-1 before the Nittany Lions scored again 30 seconds before halftime.
Small recorded her fourth goal of the season on an assist from senior Candice Cooper five minutes into the second half, making the score 4-2.
After two more Penn State goals, sophomore Wenny Ng scored for the second time this season.
“We have been doing really well when we get on the attack,” Small said. “We have been doing a good job finishing.”
On Sunday NU faced Duke (14-3), which is the highest scoring team in the nation and averages nearly six goals per game.
Duke scored five minutes into the game, but then NU junior goalkeeper Kelly Augustine shut the Blue Devils out for more than 20 minutes before they knocked home a penalty corner to extend their lead to 2-0 heading into the half.
“We made corrections in our defense (Saturday) in practice,” McCollum said. “The fact that we could make such significant corrections in two days is impressive.”
Duke scored three times in the second half, once in the first minute and twice in the last five minutes.
“The goals at the very beginning and end of the second half are something we still need to fix,” McCollum said.
“We need to stop having mental breakdowns.”
Senior Morgan Kuhn scored the only goal for the Cats with 13 minutes left and the score 3-0.
It was her first goal of the season and second of her career.
Although the Cats gave up five goals, McCollum said she was impressed with how her team handled playing the No. 3 team in the country.
“Kelly Augustine had a tremendous game,” said McCollum. “Morgan Kuhn stepped it up big as well.
“They did what we asked of them.”
Sunday was the final home game for the Cats’ seniors, Kuhn and Cooper.
“I will remember all the great times we had together,” Cooper said. “We are all so close, I’m going to miss them.”
Reach Abraham Rakov at [email protected].
Friday
PSU 6
NU 3
Sunday
DUKE 5
NU 1
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Jerry lai/the daily northwestern
NU’s Ellen Schlafly scores a goal right before halftime in the Cats’ 6-3 loss to Penn State on Friday. NU never recovered after falling behind 2-0 to the Nittany Lions. The Cats have recently had problems keeping teams off the scoreboard.
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