{"id":13238,"date":"2014-11-09T16:46:28","date_gmt":"2014-11-09T16:46:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.techiteens.com\/review\/field-hockey-to-play-for-title-after-topping-fairfield-3\/"},"modified":"2014-11-09T16:46:28","modified_gmt":"2014-11-09T16:46:28","slug":"field-hockey-to-play-for-title-after-topping-fairfield-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.techiteens.com\/review\/field-hockey-to-play-for-title-after-topping-fairfield-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Field Hockey to play for title after topping Fairfield"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

By Jasmine Robinson<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Contributing Writer<\/p>\n

sports.asp@gmail.com<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/a><\/p>\n

Photo by Aaron Cheris
Paula Heuser scored both UAlbany goals, including one on a penalty stroke, to lead the Danes to victory.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

With their season on the line, the University at Albany (17-2) field hockey team\u00a0pulled off a 2-1 win against the evenly matched Fairfield University Stags (7-12)\u00a0on Thursday\u00a0afternoon. The cold and rainy weather did not set the scene for an ideal game, but it didn\u2019t stop the Great Danes from clinching the win in the America East conference tournament semifinals, sending them to the conference title game. The\u00a0victory is UAlbany\u2019s eleventh\u00a0straight, a season record.<\/p>\n

The Great Danes faced a great deal of foul trouble as the game began, which reflected in no goals\u00a0by the half. The penalties slowed down their forward progression, a problem to which coach Phil Sykes had the answer. \u201cIt\u2019s tough, because when you get to the conference tournaments, it\u2019s nervy. There\u2019s a lot on the line; your season could end today,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

These nerves saw the Great Danes fail\u00a0to convert in Fairfield\u2019s circle, taking 13 shots on goal with little\u00a0success and turning the ball over due to fouls. However, difficult\u00a0calls made against the Danes didn\u2019t stop UAlbany\u2019s impeccable passing game, which went\u00a0around Fairfield\u2019s tough defense. \u201cI thought we had some good chances, but their goalie played well,\u201d Sykes said of Fairfield goalie Caitlyn Bennett, who made 11 saves.<\/p>\n

UAlbany dominated offensively, spending most of the game on the Stags\u2019 side of the field, utilizing all of their players to move the ball around. Defensively, Jaclyn Hibbs and Fiori Van Rijswijk stayed strong, holding Fairfield to only one offensive corner.<\/p>\n

The second half of the game saw a revitalized Great Danes offense. Although the Great Danes saw\u00a0less foul trouble, they\u00a0couldn\u2019t\u00a0capitalize on their corners. UAlbany had four offensive corners in the second half, but only converted on one at the start of the second half. Sophomore Paula Heuser was able to make the quick shot off\u00a0a corner, with an assist from Laura Page, putting UAlbany up 1-0. The Stags were quick to answer with a corner of their own, which tied the score 1-1 with 26 minutes left in the game.<\/p>\n

Heuser put the Great Danes in the lead on a penalty stroke in the 55th<\/sup> minute, scoring the game winner. \u201cIn practice, she hadn\u2019t been making them very well, so I\u2019m glad she stood up and made a good shot,\u201d Sykes said of Heuser.<\/p>\n

After the game, the goal scorer\u00a0was nearly speechless. \u201cIt\u2019s such a relief, it was a good game.\u201d Heuser\u00a0said with a smile on her face.<\/p>\n

Maxi Primus, UAlbany\u2019s\u00a0sophomore goalkeeper from Germany, made a key\u00a0diving save in the last 10 minutes of the game to keep UAlbany in front. \u201cI was nervous because it was a close game. Fairfield played an awesome game, to be honest,\u201d Primus said. \u201cI just thought \u2018I need to save this ball.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Coach Sykes was\u00a0confident in their practice in the previous week leading up to\u00a0Saturday\u2019s game versus the University of New Hampshire. \u201cAll season we\u2019re taking one game at a time, but we\u2019re confident going in and we\u2019re hoping for the best,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

UAlbany hosts\u00a0UNH at 1 p.m. at\u00a0Alumni Turf\u00a0this Saturday, Nov. 8 with a conference championship and an NCAA Tournament berth on the line.<\/p>\n

Click here<\/a> for highlights of UAlbany\u2019s win over Fairfield.<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/a><\/p>\n

Photo by Aaron Cheris
After winning on Thursday, UAlbany will play UNH with their season on the line.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n


\nThe Albany Student Press<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Jasmine Robinson Contributing Writer sports.asp@gmail.com Photo by Aaron CherisPaula Heuser scored both UAlbany goals, including one on a penalty stroke, to lead the Danes to victory. With their season on the line, the University at Albany (17-2) field hockey team\u00a0pulled off a 2-1 win against the evenly matched Fairfield University Stags (7-12)\u00a0on Thursday\u00a0afternoon. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kadence_starter_templates_imported_post":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[983],"tags":[2895,2541,1729,1421,2138,2924,3987],"class_list":["post-13238","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-albany-student-press","tag-after","tag-fairfield","tag-field","tag-hockey","tag-play","tag-title","tag-topping"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.techiteens.com\/review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13238"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.techiteens.com\/review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.techiteens.com\/review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.techiteens.com\/review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.techiteens.com\/review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13238"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.techiteens.com\/review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13238\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.techiteens.com\/review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.techiteens.com\/review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.techiteens.com\/review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}