On a beautiful fall day in New England, DA’s JV field hockey played their hearts out against one of their toughest competitors, Hotchkiss. Although we came out like wildfire at the beginning of the first half, putting pressure on their defense and taking several shots on goal, the tides quickly turned and we found ourselves in an intense defensive struggle. Goalie Lucy Blake ’19 was impenetrable, however, and her calm, focused determination was supported by the experience of our returning defenders Sabrina Satirhos ‘18, Anna Scott ’18 and Lynette Jiang ’18 as they fought to keep Hotchkiss at bay. With a scoreless first half behind them, DA regrouped and started the second half having made some adjustments to help more successfully move the ball to Hotchkiss’s circle. Within two minutes DA’s right wing Maddie Blake ‘17 scored the first goal of the game with an assist from Ashley Manning, the midfielder backing her up on the right side of the field. Hotchkiss responded quickly with a goal, and found their way down the field one more time to score the go-ahead goal. DA kept the fire going with powerful young defenders Hanna Deringer ‘20, Emma Jaskloski ’20 and Emily Henderson ’19 who refused to back down. With a through pass from midfielder Hunter Keller ’20 to her wing Raegan Hill ’19, who one-timed a pass to forward Valerie Ma ‘17, DA went on the attack. In Hotchkiss’s circle Valerie executed a sweet pass to Maddie who was able to score a second goal for DA, tying the game at 2-2. In the final few minutes of the game both teams put pressure on the other’s defense, hoping to hit the game-winning goal, but neither team was successful. Although the game ended in a tie, based on the intensity of DA’s players and the exceptional support from the cheering resonating from our own bench and from our fans, one would have thought we had won the game. Congratulations, JV Field Hockey!