University of Maryland trip today.
Wife Debbie and I are getting ready to leave our Hampton Inn in Washington, PA in a few minutes to make it to College Park, Maryland to see daughter Natasha and her University of Louisville Cardinal field hockey team take on Stanford at noon. The Cardinals defeated Big East opponent Georgetown 5-1 Saturday (10/31). Tash played extremely well. The game was played at American University in Washington D.C. This is the final regular season game for Team Cardinal ("TC"). Tash takes on another former Columbus Academy teammate. Rachel Mozenter, a senior, is a high-scoring forward for Stanford. She and Tash played together when Tash was a freshman. The Mozenters are a fantastic family.
C wins to fight yet another day.
Youngest daughter Clarissa ("C") had a defensive save and scored a stroke as 6th seeded Columbus Academy won its regional final game against Thomas Worthington in strokes. TW scored early and controlled the first 10 minutes of play. CA came on and took over the rest of the first half with the Vikes' Jesse Pickering scoring on a penalty corner to tie the game at one. Worthington then took over in the 2nd half and the Vikes just held on. It was during this time that C had her defensive save when the ball got past goalie Alicia Tamarkin and appeared on its way in. With about 5 minutes to go in the game the Vikes regained their edge and had some great chances to win including a penalty corner as time expired when senior all-stater Mia Wise was just wide right on a shot from the top of the 16-yard circle and senior Caroline Casey just missed tipping it in.
TW then reasserted itself in the first part of the first 10 minute sudden death overtime and had several penalty corners against the Vikes. At that point, Worthington hit its high water mark as the Vikings gained a foothold and took over the final five minutes of the first OT and all of the 10 minutes of the second overtime. But although the Vikes threatened to score several times, they couldn't put the ball in the cage.
Then came the stroke shoot-out to decide the issue. The teams desigmate 5 strokers each and they alternate shooting strokes from 6 yards out against the other team's goalie. Whichever team gets the most after the five tries (if necessary), wins. CA went first. Sophomore Dina Sinno scored; then TW's all-stater Anna Simmons, who played splendidly, was stopped by CA's Tamarkin. CA's second stroker, senior Taylor Long, missed the last two seasons with ACL surgeries, then hit her stroke, while the TW stroker was again stopped by Tamarkin. CA was up 2-0 in the strokes. Then came C, who scored to put the Vikes up 3-0. TW was on razor thin margin at this point, having to score its last three opportunities and stop the Vikes on their last two. The next Cardinal stroker kept it alive by scoring her stroke to narrow the gap to 3-1 with both teams having 2 more strokes each. Then came Wise for CA to the stroke line to try to win it for the Vikes. Perfect! Game over. Jubilation for the Vikings who head to the state's Final Four. The semifinal is noon Friday (11/6) against nemesis Hathaway Brown from Cleveland. HB beat the Vikings in the state championship game last year when C, a sophomore, and Tash were playing together.
C's big sister Miranda and my brother, Uncle Dan, were at the game with us cheering on the Vikings.
