On Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024, the Berkeley High School girl’s field hockey team took on Convent of the Sacred Heart High School at home. The BHS team immediately came off strong, with midfielder and team captain Greta Graham taking on several defenders and finding key passes to her teammates.
The majority of the first half was played closer to the opponents goal, with sophomore Violet Potts making crucial plays to her teammates and assisting sophomore Josephine Sutton in an exciting goal in the first quarter. The Jackets continued to hustle in the second quarter with impressive defense skills from senior Tallulah Owsley and junior Echo Sutherland. The two stopped several counter attacks and kept the ball away from Berkeley’s goal.
However, in the third quarter, the home team seemed to tire and Sacred Heart was able to make some plays in front of the Jackets’ goal- they had several break aways and a few shots on the jackets’ goal, however junior Sabine Rosen and Graham kept the team together and worked hard to win the ball back.
Sacred Heart gave BHS several penalties opportunities, and the Jackets got several shots off before finally scoring again in the final moments of the third quarter when Rosen was able to get a shot off of a scrambling ball. This put the Jackets up 2-0.
By the fourth quarter, the Jackets were able to keep the ball and move it around the opponents’ half, only interrupted by a few counter attacks that were quickly defended by the Jackets.
After the game, Graham, a current senior, said, “I thought we did a really good job connecting our passes, but we still have a lot of room for improvement on keeping the energy up and taking shots when we're in the circle.”
The team has a record of two wins and four losses and hopes that they will continue to improve. “I'm really proud of us because we have a lot of new players that are just playing field hockey for the first time, and I think we're doing really well.” Graham said.
Although the team had some recent losses, Graham and the other captains are optimistic about the team and hope to continue to come together with the newer players.
The team has new coaches this year, and they have been a great support to the team. The team has a lot of younger talent this year with many sophmores.
Plum Newman, another senior player, is thrilled with the number of new faces on the team. “I personally love it. They are really good at field hockey and are a great part of the team,” She expressed.
One thing that the team hopes to work on is communication, Newman said, “I think that communication is really important and just being really uplifting to each other, and encouraging people to go to the ball and not create too much of a culture of competition.”