Field Hockey Impresses at Jamboree

The Big Red field hockey team started off its season with a couple competitive matches at a Jamboree last Wednesday. Three schools, Brooks, Noble & Greenough, and Exeter, participated in this event providing solid competition before the season’s official start. These two match-ups were tests for both the players and the team. Despite the added pressure of the first scrimmage on the players, every player performed extremely well.Upper Noa Siegel mentioned that the games played out extremely well even though it was the team’s first time playing in a competitive game setting. “The game went well, we really connected as a team despite the fact that we had only made first cuts and this was our first time playing together in a game like situation.”In fact, Siegel believed that the quality of play exceeded her original expectations for the team. “We did a lot better than my original expectations for sure.”Senior captain Marley Jenkins was impressed with the team’s abilities. “We played well, given that it was our first game together. We won 1-0 over Brooks.”These games also helped team members identify what kind of mistakes they were making. Both Jenkins and Siegel identified that some mistakes came from the lack of experience and having a young team. Jenkins stated “We have a lot of people who are newer to the sport so some positioning was hard but we adjusted and got better throughout the game. We have to keep working on our ability to move it up the field and to be more aggressive when taking it to the goal.Siegel believed that every player has made some personal errors in the game. “I think some mistakes were things like one on one defense and our hitting technique.”Nevertheless, she believes that the team will be able to overcome these errors as players get more time on the field. “Just knowing where to be on the field, but that was sort of expected given our team this year is for the most part a younger group of girls with less experience than last year.When asked how the team plans on working out the problems, Siegel stated “For the future, I would just say we need to keep working hard and focusing during practice because that time is really important for the improvement of our game.”Despite having a very young team, the Big Red Field hockey team is looking forward to a winning season with many new talented players. Their next game is against Groton. After another scrimmage, the team will begin its season against the Milton Mustangs.