The Saint Anselm field hockey team has been off to great so far in their season. The team has seen a lot of highs and lows. In the opening days of the season they claimed 5th in the NFHCA Division 2 coaches poll so they certainly had a lot of hype around them to start their campaign.
The hawks were trampled in the opening game of the season by the defending champion in a 4-0 loss to the Kutztown Golden Bears on September 5. The hawks did try to gain momentum in the 2nd half by earning penalty corners, but they were unable to capitalize. Things would get even worse for the team when they shut out again but this time by No.2 ranked East Stroudsburg in a 6-0 loss. And again the team had chances to gain ground with 6 penalty corners and 5 shots from them but they yielded nothing. The hawks would gain their first win of the season on September 12 in a 3-1 win against Maryville University. The hawks were not able to score in the 1st quarter but they were able to fight their way into the offensive side. The first goal came when senior Maddie Davis scored off a feed from fellow senior Amanda Lewndowski to tie the score 1-1 going into halftime. The 2nd half began quite eventful for both sides with the 3rd quarter ending scoreless. In the 4th quarter, the hawks took flight when they scored back to back goals both off penalty corners. Lewandowski scored her 1st goal of the season off of a feed from senior Grace Michael from a set play off of a corner. The 2nd one came from senior Ava Rayfield tipping in a goal from a feed by Lewandowksi. The hawks improved to 1-2 on the season.
The hawks soared sky high when they traveled to Franklin Pierce and put on a clinic in a 6-0 win. The team would strike first and early in the game when they earned a penalty corner in the 1st 30 second and junior Ellie Brothers managed to score off a feed from senior Chloe Kapsambelis. The Hawks would maintain possessions for most of the 1st quarter. The team would score their 2nd goal with 40 seconds left in the quarter when Laurentien van den Akker found a through ball from Meghan Smith.
The 2nd quarter would begin with barely any action, with the first shot coming in the 24th minute. A penalty quarter at the 26th minute would set up another score when 5th year Maddie Davis would set up a rebound scoring opportunity as Abby Brezyak gave the ball back to Davis for the score. It was all hawks the entire game, with Amanda Lewandowski, Marissa Politano, and fellow 5th year Sophie Smith also putting their names in the scoring book. The next day on September 16, Lewandowski would earn NE10 player of the week honors. The team would later be ranked 9th in the latest NFHCA National Poll.
Amanda Lewandowski would put on a stellar performance to a big 7-1 win against Saint Michaels. Lewandowski recorded a hat trick in the first quarter and also had an assist in the seven point night, Amanda would score 3 in the first 6 minutes. The next week on September 20th the hawks would fall in a 2-1 thriller against Adelphi. The team would have a handful of scoring opportunities in the majority of the first quarter but they dropped them all. The team would maintain possession for most of the second quarter and they would tie the game 1-1 with Meghan Smith feeding junior Marissa Politano. The game would go on the hawks would again
tie the game but at 2-2. But they would lose in heartbreaking fashion when Adelphi scored with 25 seconds left.
The hawks have a lot of field hockey left to play so it will be interesting to see how the rest of the season plays out.