“Right now, we’re 500,” said senior Devon Goetz as the RM field hockey team huddled before their game against Paint Branch on Friday. “We need to play our hardest and make this game count.” The 4-4 Rockets were looking for a win after a hard 2-1 loss in overtime against B-CC on Monday. RM clinched victory Friday night over Paint Branch with a final score of 3-2, but the players were in agreement that this was not their best game of the season.

“I just wanted us to play the game that we knew we could play. We’ve had a lot of strong games with disappointing outcomes, so I wanted this to be a strong game with a positive outcome,” Goetz remarked. Especially in the first half, the Rockets seemed to be lacking the competitive fire and intensity that they had used against B-CC, Wootton, and Walter Johnson.

Paint Branch maintained possession for the majority of the first half, constantly threatening the circle and earning corners. The few breakaways that RM managed to get resulted in goals, but all too often their passes were incomplete or straight into a group of Paint Branch players. “Our 2-0 lead on the scoreboard did not reflect how we were playing,” said Rockets Coach Alie Brooks.

Paint Branch scored in the last few minutes of the first half, leaving the Rockets with only a one point lead. “Things that we usually do well, like being able to mark in the circle and see ‘Oh, there’s three people there, maybe I should go cover someone’ were not happening today. There were times where there was no one around, and there were times where there were too many people around and we were passing into each other,” said senior Tori Cruz-Falk.

A few things changed in the second half, but something still seemed to be missing that kept the team members from playing to their full potential. “It wasn’t our best, but I do think that in the second half we were a little less frantic and more poised,” said junior Ornelle Faitquoi. Both Paint Branch and RM scored again in the second half, making the final score 3-2. “At least we acknowledged that we didn’t play well,” Cruz-Falk reflected. “If we came out of it saying, ‘we won 3-2, awesome’, then it would have been worse.”

Now 5-4, the Rockets are looking to practice hard this week and come out strong in their senior night game against Springbrook on Wednesday.

Coach Alie Brooks always encourages the players to always think of specific skills that can improve their game, and personal goals to work towards. “We need to work on directing our hits so they don’t just go out of bounds or into space that an opposing player can reach,” said sophomore Emily Conway.

“We hustled, but I think we need to work on spreading out and using our diagonals. Once we get into the circle, we’re good at working well together to get the ball into the goal,” junior Vanessa Barnes added.

Despite this setback, the players still have high hopes for their potential to win more games in the playoffs this year than they have in the past.  “If we’re going far in the playoffs, this is the year and this is the group of girls that’s going to do it,” said senior Elizabeth Conway. “We’ve got the hustle, we’ve got the drive, and we’ve got the skills. I know we’re better than we played today, and we can make it big.”

Come watch as The Rockets field hockey find their fire again when they take on Wheaton on Monday, followed by Springbrook on Wednesday.

Feature photo by Elizabeth Conway