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2007 Field Hockey Year in Review
June 27, 2008
The Hawks started the season slowly, dropping four of their first five contests. In the season opener, a penalty corner in the second overtime propelled Hofstra to a 2-1 win over SJU. The Hawks then fell by a 1-0 score at Fairfield three days later. SJU earned its first win of 2007 in its first home match, defeating crosstown rival Penn, 2-1, as Theresa Barbati and Marisa Pizzi netted their first goals of the year. After that, the Hawks lost consecutive games by 1-0 scores, first to #11 James Madison and then to Drexel. The Hawks then went on a tear, winning four straight. The winning streak started with a 1-0 win over Virginia Commonwealth. Two days later, the Hawks upended #14 Delaware, 2-1. Senior Brianne Miller then tallied two goals in a 4-2 win at Lafayette to bring the Hawks back to .500 on the season at 4-4. Saint Joseph's notched arguably its biggest win of the regular season on September 23, knocking off then-#9 American in overtime by a 2-1 score. Freshman Jen Wrublesky scored the game-winner from a penalty corner nine minutes into the extra period to send the Hawks home happy. After a tough 2-1 loss at Rutgers, the Hawks were once again on the winning end of a 2-1 result, this time in their conference opener at Saint Louis. Returning home, SJU fell to perennial Atlantic 10 power Richmond, 3-2, before easily handling Rhode Island, 3-0. Pizzi tallied two goals in the win over the Rams, while Barbati had a goal and two assists over the two games. SJU ended its brief homestand with a 1-0 loss to Massachusetts.
The Hawks then headed back out on the road, where they excelled to the tune of a 6-3 record on the year. SJU pounded West Chester, 6-0, and two days later secured a berth in the Atlantic 10 Championship with a 2-0 win over La Salle. In an awesome display of balanced scoring, the eight SJU goals were scored by seven different players. Senior goalkeeper Rebecca Cunfer recorded a 189-plus minute shutout streak during the span that ended in SJU's final road game, a 2-1 win at Villanova. The win marked SJU's second three-game winning streak of the season. Unfortunately for the Crimson and Gray, the season would end on a sour note as the Hawks fell to Temple, 4-2, in their home finale. The loss relegated SJU to the fourth seed in the A-10 Championship and set up a rematch with Owls in the semifinals. The two teams returned to Finnesey Field six days later for the conference tournament. Despite the fact that the matchup featured the same two teams on the same field, the result was very different as Saint Joseph's upset the top-seeded Owls, 3-2. Miller tallied her fourth of the season just over five minutes in, and put SJU on top 2-1 shortly before halftime with her second of the game. A Temple penalty corner with 2:38 to go looked to send the game to overtime, but sophomore Kellie Walter sent a Barbati cross past the Temple keeper just 49 seconds later to send the Hawks through to the championship game. Unfortunately for the Hawks, this rematch would not end the same way as the first as Massachusetts took the title with a 2-1 victory. Two first-half goals put the Minutewomen ahead early, but Wrublesky got the Hawks back within one soon after the break. The final 30 minutes were frenetic as Saint Joseph's carried the play and even had a penalty corner attempt with no time left on the clock. Miller's last-gasp shot was just wide of the cage, and the season came to an end. A number of Hawks were honored for their performances during the 2007 season. Among them, Cunfer earned the conference's Student-Athlete of the Year award for the second straight year. Wrublesky was named the Atlantic 10 Rookie of the Year and represented the Hawks as the only freshman on the All-Conference First Team. Cunfer, Pizzi, Katie Young, and Anne Schreuders were named to the All-Conference Second Team, while Casey Fry was named to the All-Rookie squad and Academic All-Conference honors were bestowed on Cunfer and Krista Bordogna. Team Awards |
