MIDDLETOWN >> The Mercy field hockey team is still looking for their first win of the season following Monday’s 2-0 non-conference loss against Haddam-Killingworth at Tiger Field.
The Tigers, who are in the midst of a rebuilding process, may not be winning but they’re a much different team than the one the Cougars played last season.
“I give Mercy a lot of credit,” said Haddam-Killingworth coach Patsy Kamercia. “They’ve improved by leaps and bounds since we saw them last year.”
“It is nice to hear that, coming from such a legend in the sport,” said Mercy coach Marji Sklar-Levine. “Every game we see improvement. We see a lot more hustle. Our stick skills seem to improve. We just need more opportunity to get the ball into the goal.”
H-K, the defending Class S champions, took a 1-0 lead on a penalty corner goal from senior Allison Sheahan. Freshman Brinley Anderson started the play by passing the ball to her sister, senior Kiley Anderson. Anderson then shuffled a pass over to Sheahan, who slapped a rocket from just inside the top of the circle that rattled the cage with nine minutes and 15 seconds left in the first half.
“Allison played a great game for us today and that was something we really needed,” said Kamercia.
Mercy sophomore goalkeeper Shannon Murphy made four saves, including a pair of key stops on scoring bids from the Anderson sisters that kept the Tigers within one goal in the first half.
The Tigers first half defensive effort was also led by Juliana DellaCamera, Jessica Corcoran, Christine Hedberg, Christy Parmenter and freshman Kathryn Hanley.
H-K freshman Julia Kostek scored an insurance goal with 15:03 remaining in the second half. Kiley Anderson and Julia Babbitt had the assists on Kostek’s goal.
H-K (4-1) had 10 penalty corner opportunities.
“We played well at times and did enough to win but there were other times out there where we backed off,” said Kamercia. “This is a good non-conference game for us. A lot of the girls know each other.”
The Tigers (0-6), who forced just one penalty corner, have mustered just two goals in their first six games. But a silver lining playbook may be on the horizon.
“Our forwards are not getting up quick enough and I also think we’re just leading them too far with our passes,” Sklar-Levine explained. “We also want our forwards to help out defensively but they can’t do both. So we’re going to make a change where we just want our forwards to stay up and we’re going to put our defensive responsibilities on our midfielders and our defense. So that’s our game plan for now. We’ll just keep plugging away.”
Haddam-Killingworth field hockey shuts out Mercy
