Millbrook at Albany Academy

Our most troublesome opponent Saturday was the field. Albany Academy's short, narrow field reminded me more of a meadow than a field hockey field, the grass was that long. But the lady Mustangs overcame that frustration, although it was hard to play a skillful game given Albany's inexperience and the grass. In the first half alone, Albany gave up 15 penalty corners but we simply couldn't score. Albany's goalie was clearly their best player; she made some nice saves but it was difficult to get off a crisp shot with the ball stuck in the muck, and AA put virtually every player in their defensive circle, so there were twenty legs to navigate through. We had some opportunities to deflect shots from the posts but they all went just wide. In the first half, the ball never made it into our defensive zone; Millbrook pounded AA but the game remained scoreless for the entire first half. Not our best performance.

Things improved right away in the second half. The game opened up a little more as we got used to the surface, and started swinging the ball to the open side. We also kept our play wide as long as possible to get a few defensive bodies out of the circle. Ten minutes into the sloggy second half, Zublin scored on a cross from VonKlencke; assist to VonKlencke. A few minutes later Anthony tipped a superb corner hit by Kane, deflecting it just wide of the goalie, finding the back of the net. Kane with an assist. Anthony would score again, unassisted, with 5 minutes left in the game.

There was one wonderful highlight in the game and that was the play of Alex Fresne. Coming off the bench she played a stupendous game being one of the few players who could actually move the ball in the swamp. Her drives were powerful; she played excellent defense and offense from her right mid position, and proved tireless in her pursuit of the ball. Kudos to Fresne who also earned the game ball.