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Check back throughout the season for senior back Laura Miller's weekly diary.

Sweet! OH, so Sweet! These are the only words that remotely come close to explaining how it felt to beat Lafayette this past Saturday. The final score was 2-1 after a hard fought game, which lasted into overtime.

Perhaps what is even sweeter than actually beating Lafayette was knowing for an entire week in advance that we were going to win. Our coaching staff masterfully crafted the preparation for our first Patriot League match-up. We studied their tendencies and matched our strengths to their weaknesses. Overall the week was filled with an intense desire to beat the defending Patriot League champions and become the team every one is chasing. Chase they will. American field hockey is on a run. With each win we are gaining confidence in ourselves and in each other. It is exciting to watch and will most definitely lead us to additional wins.

The game itself was a tug-of-war, often fought in opposing twenty-fives, as shown by the number of shots (15-20) seen by both myself and the other goalie. We had the initial pass back but this did not give us the early advantage we had planned. Both teams pressed in the early going but once we hit our stride, we dominated the first half. Kaitlin skillfully managed to beat the Lafayette goalie after many previous attempts by the team. Her goal gave us the 1-0 advantage going into the second half.
None to happy, Lafayette played strong in the second half and was able to tie up the game off of a corner hit. While not playing as we had during the first half, we were able to hold the tie, even putting on pressure with two last minute corners. Time ran out and we had five minutes to prepare for overtime. Returnees (at least myself) were thinking of how the last overtime against Lafayette had not ended in our favor. This was not going to be the case this year. We were the better team and were going to win. It took us just over five minutes. Javi, unassisted, found the back of the cage and we had won, no question! Emotions ran wild, hearts were pounding, and many of us had tears in our eyes. I don’t think my writing gives justice to exactly how we felt, but I hope you can sense our excitement.

After taking our time to enjoy the victory, we were once again treated to an outstanding tailgate by our diehard fans. Just to make those of you who couldn’t make it jealous, there were grilled hot dogs and hamburgers, BBQ, divine desserts, salads … the works. Thank you to all who came out to see us play, brought food, or those who were with us in thought. We are back in action this coming Wednesday against another nemesis - Georgetown.
more room for more fans.

Hope to see you all there!