On a classically beautiful Fall Family Weekend Saturday, DA’s JV field hockey took the field, determined to put their best ‘cleat’ forward against a notoriously strong Loomis Chaffee squad. During the majority of the first half, DA dominated the play as sweepers Sabrina Sathiros ’18 and Lily Faucett ’20 stepped up to tackle any oncoming Loomis forwards, fully counting on their other defenders to recover and back them up. DA’s strong defense didn’t give goalie Lucy Blake ’19 much to do! Cheered on by family and friends, Jenna Greenbaum ’17 and Sydney Gregg ’20 moved the ball beautifully down the right side of the field, supported by their middie Hunter Keller ’20 and defender Emma Jaskolski ‘20. Center back Anna Scott ’18 led the defense as she closely backed up her offense, constantly feeding the ball back into the circle by changing fields and passing to the open space. As DA pressured the Loomis defense and goalie with multiple attacks into the circle and shots on goal, Deirdre Mullowney ’19 scored the first goal of the game, almost 18 minutes in, with an assist from midfielder Emily Henderson ’19. After regrouping during half-time, and reminding each other to draw the defenders out of the middle of the scoring circle to make room for shots to penetrate, Valerie Ma ’17 tipped in our second goal of the game with a beautiful cross from the right corner by Emily Henderson ’19, eight minutes in. Being up 2-0 did not change the focus of the team as they continued to play as a unit, making an effort to execute all that we had worked on in the week’s practice, both offensively and defensively. Loomis fought to change the momentum of the game, and was able to put some pressure on our defense and goalies. But our D rose to the occasion: goalie Niyafa Boucher ’18 made several excellent, strong clears supported by her side defenders Lynnette Jiang ’18 and Hanna Deringer ’20, as they carried her clears up the field, out of Loomis’ reach. With about 20 seconds left in the game, DA sent the ball down the left side of the field: midfielder Ashley Manning ’19 sent a pass to Dierdre Mullowney who sent the ball through to Emily Henderson ’20 who slammed a shot into the right corner of the goal, just like she had practiced over and over again in her free time before and after our regular practice times. The exciting 3-0 win over Loomis was due in no small part to a full team effort. Congratulations, girls!