After playing 14 games, the field hockey team is getting ready for their last four games before SUNYAC Tournament. With a record of 7-7, the Knights’ next few matches are critical to their success—their final round of games can go either way.
The women have had a very interesting season. They have had some exceptionally high scoring victories, such as a 7-1 win over Keuka College, a 8-1 win over SUNY Brockport and a 5-0 win over SUNY Oneonta—all of which boosted the team’s overall morale.
The team, however, has also had close losses, including a 2-1 loss against Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, a 1-2 loss against St. John Fisher College, a 0-1 loss against SUNY New Paltz and a 1-2 loss against SUNY Cortland. The losses, however, have seemed to strengthen their resolve.
“[The losses have] helped us grow as a team,” head coach Jess Seren said. “As long as we keep focusing on and learning from that, I think that there’s a lot of success that can come from failure, and that is what we are looking to do with some of the tough losses that we’ve had. Between the wins we’ve had and the losses—five of our seven losses have been by a goal—we need to focus on completing a game and the full 70 minutes.”
Seren added that she is optimistic about the potential outcome of the next four games. She emphasized her belief that having these losses on the team’s record has actually been beneficial in terms of their attitude and skill improvement. As difficult as it may be to deal with a loss, the women have certainly managed to use them to their advantage.
“It’s always tough when you lose a close game, but it is important,” Seren said. “When you lose a close game like that, you are able to look at them more critically than you would if you had won. So, we’ve tried to evaluate our play and improve on mistakes, or improve on things we could have capitalized going forward every game.”
Even with the SUNYAC Tournament right around the corner, the team’s focus is on their upcoming game against SUNY Oswego on Saturday Oct. 24. Keeping their mind in the present is essential for the women to continue to do well, since they must maintain their spot as contenders for the SUNYAC finals.
“Right now, our focus in regards to conference play and SUNYACs is completing the regular season and that will happen with Oswego this coming Saturday … once that game has been decided, we can go forward from there,” Seren said. “After that, we will be starting to think about our opponent in the semifinals.”
The mindset of staying focused on the present game and learning from losses—a mentality that Seren has instilled in the team—has a high probability of getting them far in the SUNYAC Tournament.
Seren seems to have done a good job of leading the women up to this point and she certainly has the energy and determination to help them become the next SUNYAC champions.