LFA Drops Friendly to SMUS

Playing on the lovely field hockey turf at the University of Victoria, the game was fast. Disciplined and organized, SMUS really pushed our Angels from the start. While we gave up the edge in play, we started to find our passes as the teams settled into the game. Our swing around the backfield allowed some good development up the field and Alicia Lung '23 found herself with opportunities outside the D on several occasions. Siobhan Fisher '23, on the outside half, was excellent in getting the ball past a staunch SMUS press and Josie Strik '22 nearly broke through a couple of times. 

It was our stalwart defending that really made an impression. Excellent marking is one thing, but Evelyn Lee '23 was playing some fine hockey in the centre-back position. Great steps and pressure on potential 2v1s. Outside defenders Georgia-Rain Shaw '24, Rachel Megan '22 and Sofia Schallig '22 were all tenacious in D, as was Georgia Clay '22, who is finding a great deal of success at defense despite being new to the position. A long series of short corners was really well defended and Helena McGee '22 was called into action to make several excellent saves and challenges. 

Early in the second half, things briefly came unraveled. SMUS' pressure got them through and some missed marking assignments resulted in odd man opportunities that gave SMUS their first goal. The second came off of a missed assignment on our short corner defense. But LFA proved resilient and managed to stem the tide of SMUS attack. Then, with about five minutes to go, LFA found another gear that had been lacking to that point. The play was really driven by some ferocious work by Shannon Stelling '24 in the middle of the pitch. Distribution to Josie on the left and to Jo Fitch '23 on the right suddenly found some holes in the SMUS defensive structure. We pushed forward, managing to hem SMUS for the firs time all game and short corners resulted. A hard short corner injection by Jo gave Alicia heaps of time to flick a hard shot on net. Jo and Lucie Fabre '22 pounced on the rebound and rifled a shot into the goal... only to have it stopped by a SMUS foot. A penalty flick was awarded as time ended. Alicia stepped up and hammered it home for a deserved goal and a fun celebration. 

A great day of hockey in Victoria! We caught the last ferry home, a little tired but better for the experience. Big, big thanks to SMUS for hosting us. We have a wonderful high school field hockey community to make these sorts of events happen.