Halloween Scrimmage

Every year we have a Halloween Scrimmage. It’s a practice where we all get to dress up and play in our costumes. Groups of us tend to pick themes and all dress up as characters from the same movie or tv show.
My group this year did Star Wars. We decided about a month ago what our theme was going to be and who was going to be what. Laura was going to be Yoda because she loves him, that’s a little bit of an understatement. Ellyn was going to be Jabba because she’s got the goalie pads to fluff her up a bit, Lauren was darth vader, Jill was R2D2 and I was Princess Leia. Jill made her costume out of a round cardboard box and looked hysterical. Watching her play was even funnier. She couldn’t see her feet or the ball for that matter. My costume was pretty simple to make, the hardest part was doing my hair. I ended up putting lofus in my hair to make poufy buns. Yup that’s right, shower lofus.
Another group of Fhocers did SpongeBob. Marguerite was Patrick and used her hair to make the fifth arm of the star. Rachel was SpongeBob. Her costume was also made out of cardboard. When she went against R2D2 it was the funniest thing ever. Both of them were reaching with their sticks but the majority of the time could only manage to kick the ball, if they touched it at all. Mary was Plankton and Caroline was Sandy.
The Rugrats also made an appearance at practice. Yes they were in diapers. Sam Karen Mel and Worm were all babies, and Krysten turned her goalie uniform into Reptar.
There were three M&Ms. Caitlin, Chelsea, and Katie were the yellow, blue, and red M&Ms.
Another group was an iPod commercial. Lena was dressed as an iPod, Megan and Grace were her two headphones. And Mary B was the crazy dancer from all the commercials.
Coach Jess definitely had the best costume of the day. She came into the locker room dressed as our very own Grace. Cornrows, mouth guard, #26 uniform and all. She played with us too.
All in all it was a great practice. Many of us could barely possess the ball but it was still a really fun day.
Now we are preparing for the upcoming weekend, Empire 8 Championships! Hope to see you all there.
Mallory

Stevens v. W&J

I have no voice… Successful weekend in Pittsburgh

On Friday afternoon we departed for our long away trip to Pittsburgh to play Washington and Jefferson for Saturday morning. The trip was really long particularly because there was loads of anticipation. Not only was this a huge conference game for us, but we also had a full weekend consisting of a visit to a scarehouse and dinner at the Spaghetti Warehouse.
Our long trip began with watching tons of fun movies on the bus ride including Charlie’s Angels, Zoolander, and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. I enjoy napping on the bus so I admit that I didn’t watch all of them!
When we finally arrived in Pittsburgh we went right to dinner. It was delicious! I got to sit at a table with my sister, Karen, and Mel. It was nice to sit down and have dinner with the seniors on the team (it doesn’t normally happen). We stuffed our faces but not too much because we wanted to be ready for the scarehouse.
The scarehouse we went to is one of the best in the country. We went there as a team the last time we were in Pittsburgh and it was absolutely terrifying! The link to the scarehouse is at http://www.scarehouse.com/ . I knew what was to come, but I will admit that I still screamed A LOT.
Saturday morning comes around and we are set to play W&J at 10am. The team was extremely pumped to play this game, because we’ve played W&J in the conference championship for the past two years AND they were undefeated in conference this year. The game proved to meet our expectations. It was an extremely competitive game. They scored first on us. Even though I hate getting scored on, I will admit that their goal was good. We answered right back in the first half with Mary Nikish scoring on a corner. The second half was played in both sides of the field. The excitement came at the end of the game. W&J got a corner against us with no time left in regulation. They took a shot that was deflected high and one of their players raised her stick and batted the ball into the goal. W&J stormed the field and began cheering. The official originally called it a goal to end the game but I immediately went up to her after she made the call to argue against it saying that it wasn’t legal. Luckily, the other official agreed with me and the goal was taken back… meaning we were now about to start overtime! W&J got corners against us but the defense played great so we were able to deny them the golden goal that would’ve ended the game. A few minutes later in the overtime, Caitlin “Cali” Chamberlain got a breakaway against the other team but was tripped from behind in the circle. Therefore, the official awarded us a penalty stroke. Mallory stepped up to take the stroke and scored! It was a beautiful stroke and ended the game! We were so excited, because it was a great game that could’ve gone either way but we were able to get it done.
I could not be more proud of our performance… I’m not even mad that I lost my voice this weekend! 

The Professional Blogger on the Team & Goalie,
Ellyn

FDU

Wednesday morning, the team woke up and prepared for our sixth game of the season against FDU. We went onto the field and went through our standard warm up. The game began and we played with everything we had. The ducks scored on a pretty corner but were unable to hold the lead with less than ten minutes left in the game. The game went into overtime, down to two minutes and ten seconds when the referees had to stop the game for lightning! The coaches got together and decided to finish the game on Thursday afternoon.


Thursday morning crept by slowly as our thoughts were focused on the game to come. So the excitement only built when we learned that they have to start the game exactly where they left off, in the first overtime period with 2:10 left on the clock. Almost as soon as the first whistle was blown to restart the game, the announcer said, “only one minute remains in the first overtime period.” After the ducks got their initial jitters out, we came out strong in the second overtime. Within the first seven minutes, Stevens scored on a perfect corner sending FDU back on the bus home with a defeat 2-1!!

- Sam

Ithaca

Conference games are always the most important games of the season. If we win enough conference games we will get to participate in the conference tournament, and winning that will take us to the NCAAs. The conference games are the only games that really count! Our first conferee opponent was Ithaca. It was definitely a great game. Both teams wanted to win so badly, and neither team ever gave up the fight to score.

At half time the score was still 0-0 but the Ducks clearly had the advantage in shots and corner opportunities. All we needed was to wear down the goalie and one would fall. The first tally of the game came on a corner. Grace inserted the ball to Karen who passed to me on her right. A defender quickly came in front of me. Without the opportunity to rip a shot, I did a little lift over her stick to send the ball towards the goal. But that ball didn't stop. It rolled in slow motion right past the goalie and into the cage. It wasn't a pretty goal by any means, but it was my first one of the season and it felt great. It was probably scored because of the bowling we did the night before. The team went bowling in the basement of Howe and I did a great job of getting the ball around the pins. Only difference was that wasn't what I was trying to do.

The second goal came less than 2 min later when Lauren earned us an offensive stroke. She was winding up for a shot with no defenders back to stop her, but one hacked her stick from behind. My roommate Jill stepped up to take the stroke. She scored no problem. Hitting the side board. We all celebrated. Being up 2-0 was awesome.

However the Refs were stroke happy it turned out. We then got 2 strokes called against us almost back to back. No biggie though. Ellyn LOVES strokes. She saved them both, making it look easy; which I can guarantee you it's not. Although Ithaca did score one goal to end the game 2-1 it we were still all thrilled with the win. One more bombers team defused and one more step towards the Empire 8 championship.

-Mal

TCNJ

The Stevens Field Hockey Team started off their 2010 season on September 1st with our first game against The College of New Jersey (TCNJ). This was an exciting time for the whole team. We traveled down to Trenton, NJ for our first away trip of the season. It was the freshman's first collegiate game and there was great anticipation of who would have those 11 starting positions on the field. The whole team was excited and pumped up to have the opportunity of playing this top ranked team as the season opener. The game started with a lot of intensity from both teams. Our goalkeeper Ellyn Griggs made a great play early in the game by stopping a breakaway and taking out a TCNJ player to deny her of a goal. TCNJ out shot us the first half by 3 shots but we were able to keep them scoreless and went into halftime tied 0-0. We talked during halftime of what we had to do as a team to dominate this game and come out with a win. We needed to get the ball into our offense and generate some shots. We wanted to win and we had the confidence of beating this team. We had a lot more opportunities on offense the second half, generating 2 offensive corners, but TCNJ was able to score in the 61st minute of the game. We unfortunately could not tie the game up within the last 9 minutes of the game so TCNJ came out with the win. We were happy with how we played as a team, especially for our first game of the season and while playing a very skilled top ranked team. We knew we still had a lot of kinks to work out and we knew what we would have to work on to try to fix our mistakes and to come out on top in the following games. This game showed a lot of heart and intensity from a lot of players on this team and it was a great way to start off the season!

Let Go Ducks!!!

-Karen Federico

Preseason 2010

On August 18th, the Stevens Field Hockey team reported for preseason. Most of the team moved in that day minus a few teammates who stayed in Hoboken for the summer. So after move-in we had a team meeting where we went over details for the season and then got to play a name game! Since it wasn’t the easiest to remember everyone’s names (even though we are attending a tech school) it was really helpful. After that we had our first dinner as a team at Panera, which I was lucky enough to have TWO times that day since my parents took me to lunch there before leaving to go back home. So after dinner I finished unpacking and went to sleep to get ready for our first practice.
Our team came in great shape to preseason which is always a plus! Getting up for 7 AM practices every day and then having another session later in the day left the team to be best friends with the ice bath! As a freshman who had never taken an ice bath before, I learned it really does help your aching muscles!

Preseason was plenty of fun! We had many team activities and learned the basics of how the system works. The team really showed we understood the concepts very quickly, individually everyone was improving - even after the first session. We concentrated on hits and you should see how powerful our hits are now! During preseason we also went in the pool one day and played a fun version of water polo, which was very humorous with our team. We really are a competitive bunch. We all worked super hard in preseason so it would pay off in the season. GO DUCKS!

Freshman- Caroline (a.k.a. Baby)

End of Season, Part 1

Spring Season 2010 – Week 4

The last day of practice was relaxed but productive as we prepared for the spring tournament at Western Connecticut. We had split into our two teams for a scrimmage the night before, and did so again on Friday to practice offensive and defensive corners. We also did my favorite thing, take strokes on the goalies! There’s something about being able to fake out a goalie and get the ball in the cage that makes it so much fun. The smack talk between us field players and the goalies probably has something to do with it too - no wagers this time. We then had a quick meeting after practice to wrap things up. I can't believe how quickly spring season went by - definitely bittersweet, but we were all pretty excited, or as we like to put it, “ready to rage” for Sunday!

Sunday morning we all woke up early to get breakfast and were ready to leave by 7:30 am. It was raining and cold but as Ducks do, we adjusted to the weather, because after all, Ducks love when it's wet! Following a quiet bus ride, we arrived at Western Connecticut, gathered our things and got ready to play. Midgey’s team (Stevens 1) played first, while my team (Stevens 2) rooted them on. They played well, but unfortunately lost that game on account of undeclared field markings. Whatever. That would be their only loss in pool play on the day. Stevens 1 went on to defeat an alumni team and Ramapo to win their pool and earn the #2 seed in the tournament. In the last game, the girls rallied for the win in a last minute scoring rampage, including an awesome reverse chip shot from Jill! It was pretty sweet!

Jess’s team, Stevens 2, went into the first game against the West Conn Alumni and won the game by a large margin - Lauren had 3 goals! We went undefeated in pool play, earning the #1 seed of the tournament. A quick intermission happened between games and my team played first in the 1v4 game against Southern Connecticut, who we had previously beaten in pool play. Despite being tired, we played well, but lost 3-1. Midgey’s team played next in the 2v3 game and played a great game but also unfortunately came out on the losing side too. Kudos to the other team's goalie for saving some sick shot. This meant that both teams were done (single game elimination crossover) but everyone had fun and got a ton of playing time. We improved throughout the day and you could see the work we've done over the past month has really been paying off!

The bus ride home for me was the realization that season was over until August. We all had improved so much and played so well, it made going to practice each day fun and interesting to see everyone's growth. All the fitness sessions with Meris suddenly didn’t seem so bad. As I’m sitting here writing this, it’s weird to think I don’t have to prepare for practice soon. I got back into the groove of season so much that I woke up on Monday morning at 6:15am, got dressed for practice... then realized I didn’t have practice. Weird. I wonder how many other teammates did the same thing. I'm excited for next season, so I say, bring it on!

<3 Meghan Broderick (Sophomore)