This past Sunday, the Bison field hockey team hosted Lafayette in another thrilling match for their regular season finale. A combination of upperclassmen experience and some youngsters got their feet wet, helping the Bison to their third win of the season.

The Leopards came out swinging, but it didn’t take long for the experienced Bison to capitalize off of a penalty corner to tie the score at 1-1. Kaelyn Long ’21 received the ball from Gugu Sibanda ’24 inside the circle and scored her first goal of the season to even the score. The Leopards managed to carry momentum going into the halftime break after scoring another goal and controlling the lead at 2-1. 

The third quarter was owned by Bison forward Rachel Apa ’24. Within three minutes, Apa caught two passes into the circle and tipped them into the back of the goal. The freshman’s strong performance gave the Bison the lead, which they managed to hold on to for the remainder of regulation time. 

“After starting out the season shaky and playing some games without some of our players for being contact traced, we pulled it together and our team really got better at working together and connecting on the field,” Apa said. “We’ve made a lot of improvements since our first game and I couldn’t have done anything without my teammates!” 

The Leopards weren’t ready to go down without a fight. In the last five minutes, they recorded six shots. Goalie Clara McCormick ’23 stepped up yet again making three saves in the final minute of regulation. In dramatic fashion, the Leopards managed to earn a stroke, which is a one on one shot opportunity between forward and goalie when the ball is deemed to be prohibited from scoring or blocked from play. 

With three seconds on the clock, McCormick stuffed Lafayette’s senior forward’s attempt to tie the game and secured the win for the Bison. 

The Bison will carry this momentum through their by-week and hopefully into the first round of the Patriot League Tournament!