It was wet and windy, and all the lady Marauders had to do to pull out a victory against the eighth-ranked team in the country and Tropical Storm Hanna was score one goal.

The Millersville field hockey team lost a tight one against Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference opponent C.W. Post 1-0 on Saturday at Biemesderfer Stadium.

Despite outshooting C.W. Post 12-6 overall (7-2 on goal), the lady Marauders were faced with a scoreless tie for the first 60 minutes. However, Amanda Nann scored on a penalty corner and Millersville never answered.

The team had their chances following the goal.  35 seconds after Nann’s goal, sophomore Emily Woodland took a shot that struck the post.  Senior Renee Fraker also had an opportunity with five minutes remaining but failed to convert on a penalty stroke.

Head Coach Shelly Behrens thought the weather might have slowed things down a little for the lady Marauders, but she was not ready to blame the loss on the conditions.
“It changed some things we did, but the conditions were the same for the other team as well,” Behrens said.  “I thought we responded really well to the conditions.”

Despite their 0-2 record, Behrens has been impressed by what she has seen early in her first season as the team’s head coach.

Outshooting a team that has high expectations like C.W. Post (3-0) is encouraging, but they will have to put some of those shots past the goalkeeper in order to have success.  Behrens knows it is just a matter of finishing before they start upsetting some of the top teams on their schedule.

A 1-0 final usually means strong defense, and this game was no different.  Behrens felt it was a complete team effort on defense rather than one or two players that limited their opponent to one goal.  Thanks to a smothering defense, freshman goalkeeper Sara Dickinson only had to make one save in 70 minutes and kept them in position to win.
Statistics like those lead Behrens to believe the team is only a game or two away from being in the position to win these types of games.

“I think we’ve grown by leaps and bounds,” Behrens said.  “I had people doing on Saturday things that I was not even sure they were capable of doing.”

“They walked away from that game and there was a feeling,” Behrens said.  “They knew they were doing well.”

The lady Marauders must keep doing what they have been doing on the defensive side of the ball and start converting on the chances they have.  Behrens is confident everything will start to fall into place after that.

Behrens, who called herself “the happiest 0-2 coach,” now leads her team against another tough opponent, Kutztown.  The team hopes to execute at their skill positions and put some points on the board this time around.

“It’s going to be a battle and a heck of a game to watch,” Behrens said.

The lady Marauders follow that game up with another PSAC contest at Bloomsburg.  The game takes place on Saturday at  noon.

This time, they hope Mother Nature will cooperate.