Field Hockey Suffers 2-0 Loss to Tabor: Moxie Falls Flat Against Strong Tabor Squad

This past Saturday, the Exeter girls’ field hockey team played a competitive game against Tabor, but ended up losing 0-2. Last year, Exeter lost to Tabor 0-6, so they hoped to improve and they knew that they had to bring their A-game. According to co-captain and senior Abby Yu, “the difficult thing about playing Tabor was the they used a similar game strategy as us.”

The rain showers prior to the game caused the turf to be slippery and the moderate winds made the weather especially cold. The conditions were not ideal, but the girls made it work. Regardless of the weather, the girls on the field hustled from the very start and played with a lot of intensity.

The first half of the game was fairly equal between the two teams. Tabor was able to work the ball into Exeter’s defensive end, and they kept the pressure on Big Red’s defense. Luckily, Exeter’s strong defensive unit and the team’s rock-solid goalies stopped all of their opponent’s early advances.

“Our defense did a great job, but we need to work on keeping the ball on the offensive end, even after fouling.”

After some hard fought battles and winning a few 50-50 balls, the girls were able to string their passes together and march down the field towards the Tabor net. Great passing and earning fouls helped the girls maintain possession, and they got off a couple of great shots. Unfortunately, the team was not able to convert on these opportunities and the game continued on scoreless.

Lower Catherine Griffin noted, “Our defense did a great job, but we need to work on keeping the ball on the offensive end even after fouling.” Many of her teammates shared this belief and the team will hope to improve on their offensive possession so that they can generate more shots in future games.

Before the end of the first half, Tabor was able to find a way through the Exeter players and added the first goal of the game. During half time, the girls were proud that they were keeping the game so close and continued to play hard in the second half.

Often, the team can become a little demoralized if they let in a goal, but that was not the case for Exeter this weekend. Even after Tabor’s second and final goal, the girls’ quality of play was relentless. Although Exeter was not able to make a comeback and lost the game, they were still happy that they were able to keep the game close against a tough team. Upper and team manager Kaleigh Conte noted that, “Both goalies did a great job, and senior Michaela Corvi had a very strong offensive game.”

Lower Michaela O’Brien said that the team’s goals for the rest of the season are to “beat Andover and get [their record] to 500.” With the team’s current record of 5-9, they will need to win their final five games of the season to meet their goals, but after their great performance against Tabor they feel optimistic.