VCU women’s field hockey beats University of Massachusetts 1-0 in tough-fought victory

Andrew McGhan, Contributing Writer

VCU women’s field hockey won a competitive 1-0 game against University of Massachusetts on Friday.

Friday’s match was the 15th time these two programs played each other dating back to 2012, according to VCU Athletics. VCU has five wins and 10 losses.

Head coach Stacey Bean said she doesn’t pay attention to the historical record between the two programs, but has a lot of respect towards UMASS’ field hockey program.

“I don’t think either one of us discounts the other team and looks at the overall record in terms of the history,” Bean said. “This is just a really important conference game for us, and taking care of it on our home field, that’s kind of a point of emphasis for us.”

VCU’s tactic coming into Friday’s match up was to put pressure on UMASS’ defensive line, according to VCU freshman forward Mora Marrero.

“It was very important, our press, because they are a very vertical team,” Marrero said. “So we have to make sure we are closing the middle to them.”

Both teams had tons of chances to score in the first, but they could not because of how great both goalkeepers were playing, according to Bean.

“We had our chances, we just didn’t put the biscuit in the basket,” Bean said. “Both goalkeepers I thought were outstanding, I think their goalie and ours are two of the best in the conference if not the region.” 

At halftime, VCU talked about not maintaining focus in the second half and to finish strong, according to graduate student goalkeeper Sheridan Messier.

“We knew that we had to stay locked in all 60 minutes of this game because it is a tough team that we’re playing, UMASS, a really good competition,” Messier said. “So we just wanted to continue to play our game and do what we do well.”

In the second half, Marrero started a counterattack on the left side of the field and passed the ball back post to VCU sophomore Josephine Jense, who scored the game winning goal. 

Coach Bean was ecstatic that they scored on the back post, she said.

“Finally scored on the back post, made me happy,” Bean said. “You can make a living there if you go on and put your stick down, good things happen.”

UMASS had a couple of one on one chances to score, but each attempt was stopped by Messier.

“It was definitely a little stressful in those moments, but I just went in with the mentality that ‘I got to win it,’” Messier said.

Both Marrero and Messier have been recognised for their play this season, with Marrero winning A-10 rookie of the week three times and Messier winning A-10 Defensive player of the week once, according to VCU Athletics.  

The team doesn’t really pay attention to who gets certain awards, but are happy that the whole team is getting recognised for their play compared to not receiving any recognition last season, according to Bean. 

“Well this group don’t really care who gets recognized,” Bean said. “They just actually enjoy the fact that we’re finally getting recognized by the conference because last year no matter how we played, or what we did, we weren’t getting that.”

With the win against UMASS, VCU improves to two wins and one loss in the A-10 Conference, according to VCU Athletics.

Even with the improved record the team is already on to the next game, according to Messier.

“It definitely feels really good,” Messier said. “We’ll celebrate this but then, come Sunday, we’re going to be locked in ready to play St. Louis on Friday.”

VCU will play Saint Louis University away on Oct 6 at Chaifetz  Pavilion.