Fieldston\u2019s Girls Varsity Field Hockey team made history on Wednesday, November 6, 2024, when they beat Rye Country Day School 3-2 in the NYSAIS championship game. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The game can only be described as \u201cedge-of-your-seat\u201d and \u201cnail-bitingly tense.\u201d It was downright cutthroat. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fieldston\u2019s team faced an underdog battle. They fought for victory from the moment they stepped on the field, while Rye, defending NYSAIS champions for the last six years, began the game with an air of expectancy and arrogance. Rye\u2019s team did not prepare for Fieldston\u2019s grit and determination, gained from the team\u2019s incomparable season defeating rival Hackley three times and playing four overtime games. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe played the first quarter and I remember looking at Lily Saal and saying, \u2018We can do this,\u2019\u201d said Holly Daykin (Form VI), one of the team\u2019s four captains. \u201cRye was clearly the better team but we matched their level, and we played as a team. We just knew we had to give it everything we had because if we didn\u2019t we\u2019d regret it.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The first quarter ended 0-0, largely because captain and team goalie Lily Burnside (Form VI) carried the team\u2019s defense, blocking shot after shot. She maintained a \u201cshort-term memory mindset\u201d throughout the game, especially after Rye scored their first goal early in the second quarter. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI knew in order for us to tie the game we had to forget about the score and continue to fight as if the game was tied,\u201d said Burnside. \u201c[After the goal], I knew as the goalkeeper I had to fight as hard as I could and give our forwards a chance to put us on top.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Down a goal, the minutes waning in the second quarter, Fieldston\u2019s offense heated up, getting a penalty stroke (similar to a penalty kick in soccer). Captain Lily Saal (Form VI), who returned to playing midway through this season after tearing her ACL last year, whipped the ball into the corner of the net, tying the score. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Saal credits her goal to the time she spent practicing with Burnside. \u201cI don\u2019t know how many of those we\u2019ve done against one another,\u201d said Saal. \u201cAs I stepped up to take it, I just pretended I was back at practice against Burnside.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Even after falling behind 1-2 in the third quarter, Fieldston remained relentless. \u201cI kept waiting for the sophomores on defense or forward or any of the less experienced underclassmen to crack and they just never did! They never gave up,\u201d said Saal. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
With only five minutes left in the fourth quarter, Lucia Mastroianni (Form IV) tapped a miracle shot past Rye\u2019s keeper. The student section roared, and breathed a sigh of relief. They were back in. The score balanced 2-2, the buzzer sounded, and overtime began. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thinking back to her game-saving goal, Mastroianni said, \u201cI was nervous and getting a little upset because I wanted to win for all of our seniors and coaches. I don\u2019t think the other team was expecting us to score in that moment, but I saw the ball and all I was thinking was to score.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After an hour and a half of back and forth, the game finally came down to shootouts. Ask anyone who was at the game that day, the tension was palpable; you could feel it as the student section stood anxiously arm-in-arm, as did the team. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Burnside stepped up to defend against Rye\u2019s first shot. She made incredible save after incredible save: diving, swatting, nearly flying, to stop the barrage of shots. On Fieldston\u2019s offensive side, Saal and Mastroianni both scored, bringing the score to 2-2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The final shot came down to Fieldston\u2019s Sophia Thompson (Form V). As she stepped toward the goal, the students, parents, and teachers who made the trek to SUNY Purchase that afternoon collectively held their breath. No one moved. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cBefore scoring, I was so nauseous. Anyone who was there at the game could see my face right beforehand, I was petrified,\u201d said Thompson of the moment before her goal. \u201cI went up to the 25-yard line, and stood very still for a moment, and thought about who was there, watching the game at that moment, and smiled.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thompson ran forward, and Rye\u2019s goalkeeper dashed to meet her. Pulling right, she smacked the ball into the center of the cage. The moment the ball hit the backboard, Fieldston\u2019s team, fans and family erupted in cheers, storming the field in victory. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Teammates hugged and cried, parents ran looking for their daughters, and Coach Diane Toth and Athletic Director Gus Ornstein shared a hug and incredulous smiles. The field was electric with emotions, from players to parents to friends, exhilaration, exhaustion and disbelief overflowed. \u201cThe feeling in that moment was something I wish I could repeat everyday of my life,\u201d described Burnside. As the team lined up and held hands for their ritual \u201c1, 2, 3, down up!\u201d you could see the realization in their eyes: They were NYSAIS champions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI believe this win was destined,\u201d said Captain Vera Koontz (Form VI). \u201cMy fellow captains and I went into this season knowing we could be winners, and that was exactly how I felt going into that final overtime period. We had made it that far; I knew we were too stubborn to lose at that point. Holly, Lily, Lily and I all share a true love for field hockey which I think was key in bringing about this perfect end to a perfect season with this perfect team.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Fieldston\u2019s Girls Varsity Field Hockey team made history on Wednesday, November 6, 2024, when they beat Rye Country Day School 3-2 in the NYSAIS championship game. The game can only be described as \u201cedge-of-your-seat\u201d and \u201cnail-bitingly tense.\u201d It was downright cutthroat. Fieldston\u2019s team faced an underdog battle. They fought for victory from the moment they stepped on the field, while Rye, defending NYSAIS champions for the last six years, began the game with an air<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":345,"featured_media":10653,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[347,318,317],"tags":[],"coauthors":[498],"class_list":["post-10652","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","category-news","category-sports"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Screenshot-2024-11-16-at-5.32.06-PM.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10652","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/345"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10652"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10652\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10655,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10652\/revisions\/10655"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10652"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=10652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}