The Red Hawks scored the first goal in the game against Oneonta State early on. After receiving a penalty corner, sophomore forward Sandy Turnbull pushed the ball directly to senior Sara Stylinski, who successfully knocked it into the goal. Oneonta soon got its own goal as well, tying the game at 1-1 before entering the next half. Both teams battled for another goal during the second half, but neither was successful, forcing an extra period of play. Less than a minute into overtime, Turnbull was able to get past the Oneonta defense and score the winning goal for the Red Hawks. They ended with a 2-1 victory, with freshman goaltender Briana Earle stopping nine shots for the win.

After a few days break, the Red Hawks were at it again on Sunday against the Wheaton College Lions. This was the first-ever meeting between the two schools in field hockey and both teams were eager to get started. The first score of the day came 1:48 minutes into the game from RPI senior Lisa Pak, assisted by junior Margaret Chowaniec. The Red Hawks gained yet another goal in the first half from Turnbull, assisted by Kristiina Baker, as well as a third goal by Baker.

With the Red Hawks’ 3-0 lead going into the second half, both teams stepped up their games, as the Red Hawks wanted to keep their lead and the Lions longed to catch up. The RPI girls got an early chance to widen the gap with three goals less than six minutes apart, respectively by sophomore Jessica Corrigan, Pak, and Baker, who was assisted by junior Megan McNamara. In the last seconds of the game the Lions were able to score off of their own rebound, closing the game at 6-1. With eight saves, Earle was able to add another victory to her 4-2 record thus far.

“We did some things very well,” noted Head Coach Bridget LaNoir. “We connected on some nice plays inside our offensive circle and we raked in nice pretty goals. We moved the ball pretty well upfield and we need to continue to make sure we’re working on cutting to the ball and cleaning up our defense a little bit, which we are going to work on this week. We talked as a team about making sure we are consistently out-working our opponents and that’s going to be our theme.”

This game ended the string of non-league games, which means that the girls will begin their Liberty League matches this upcoming weekend.

“Our non-league schedule, I think, is really competitive, and it’s something that I think prepares us for our league games because our league games are always very tough, and in a sense they are getting us ready for our Liberty League championships,” said LaNoir. “If we win our Liberty League championships, that will be the stepping stone to the NCAA tournament. So that’s our goal: doing well in our Liberty League games and playing non-league games that will get us ready for Liberty League and hopefully Liberty League championships and the season.”