With less than four minutes left in the fourth quarter, the Blue Devils looked to maintain possession and keep the score within one goal. As the clock ticked down, and just over a minute appeared on the scoreboard, Westfield’s offense started to attack the goal, looking for an accurate and powerful shot on goal. Unfortunately, the Blue Devils were unable to find the back of the net, resulting in a 7-8 loss to Summit in the Union County Tournament Semifinals.
Westfield’s defense was vital in this tight contest, keeping the Hilltoppers’ powerful offense at bay, only going down by two at most through all four quarters. Senior captain and defender Erin Hazard said, “The main role of the defense is to keep up the communication. We’re in a different defensive formation that we’re not normally used to which we’ve been playing for the past few games. So putting pressure on the ball and keeping up communication is super important for us.”
The Blue Devils have experimented with different defensive tactics this season, ultimately landing on a strong zone defense which has worked well for the team. Hazard said, “We felt like we play a lot of teams where they have a couple of strong girls so we wanted to find their weaknesses and put pressure on them. Although Summit has a strong team all around, it worked really well today for our defense, and it works towards our strengths.”
Senior goalie Lauren Furey had six crucial saves throughout the matchup. With Summit’s Georgetown, Yale, Bucknell, George Washington and Colgate commits all firing at Furey, she and the Westfield defense were able to hold strong, allowing only eight goals. Furey said, “I think the fact that we were confident in our ability to win the whole time, we knew that we had them, we knew what we had to do, and we knew that we were completely capable of beating them, and that’s ultimately what led to such a close game. We didn’t get the result we wanted, but it definitely is going to be a learning lesson for us going into states.”
The Blue Devils’ offense stayed neck-and-neck with the star-studded Summit offense, almost matching every one of their goals scored. Westfield used some star power of their own, including junior Lehigh commit Gillian Cohen, who tallied two goals and one assist. Cohen said, “I tried to control the offense to make sure we were all staying spread and not getting in each other’s way. We ran our plays and looked for each other on offense. We made sure when the double was sent, we hit the open person and had good shots too.”
Freshman Lorelei McGorty made her presence felt on the field, tallying two goals, including a buzzer-beater to end the first half. Freshman Kate Cymbor, junior Lehigh commit Alice Manzo, and senior Abi Mokrzycki also added one goal each.
Preparing for the game, head coach Katie DaSilva said, “We watched a lot of film on them and we just tightened up our defense. We knew their weaknesses. We watched teams that have beaten them and we kind of just tried to attack those weaknesses.”
Looking ahead, the Blue Devils have six regular-season matchups left as well as the state tournament. Hazard said, “I think focusing on what we do positively is really important for us. I know we get stuck on the negative sometimes and I think looking towards the positives and thinking about what we did well during these types of games is important. [Summit] is nationally ranked, and we kept them to such a close game, so I think that’s something to be proud of.”
Westfield will face Morristown at home on May 2 at 4:00 p.m. as they look to carry the positives from this game and use them to their advantage for the remainder of the season. DaSilva said, “When you play at this high of a level, you just know what you’re capable of, and you can’t really accept anything else.”
