The season began just like last time: a shutout.
Lead by freshman goalie Greta Helvie’s pair of saves, the field hockey team shut out its opening opponent, Sweet Briar, for the second year in a row and the third in the last seven seasons. With the shutout, Helvie becomes the first freshman goalie to earn a shutout in her first career start in the past 17 years.
Staunch goalkeeping was buoyed by an offensive onslaught lead by sophomore forward Austin Davis, who secured her first career hat trick en route to a four-point day. It was Davis’s teammate junior midfielder Leslie MacManus who got the scoring going, capitalizing just 4:19 into the game. Davis then followed suit, scoring at 18:31. Only 90 seconds passed before senior co-captain Danielle Thompson made it a 3-0 game.
Davis began the second half scoring in just under four minutes for her second goal of the day. Eight minutes later, she would complete her hat trick giving the lady Jays a 5-0 lead. Sophomore forward Bridget Hampton then took over, scoring her first career goal off of a saved shot rebound. Junior forward Miceile Barrett capped the scoring with just over 11 minutes to play.
The 7-0 victory propelled the Jays to 1-0 while also giving Head Coach Megan Fraser her 200th career victory. Fraser would not yet get No. 201, as Hopkins fell to Washington & Lee the very next day.
The first half yielded little action as neither team could find a way to put it in the back of the net. Both goalies combined for 12 saves in the half, with the Jays’ Helvie stopping three.
Senior midfielder Lucy Woodrow led off a wild second half with the first goal of the match to give Hopkins a temporary 1-0 lead. While it took the Jays 38:12 to claim the lead, the Generals rallied with three goals in a six minute span, beginning at 42:32 and ending with the Generals leading 3-1 at 48:22. That would be it for scoring as Hopkins fell to 1-1, losing for the first time in 11 meetings with Washington & Lee. Hopkins outshot its opponent 16-5 and had one more corner (3-2), but could not defeat the hosts.
The Lady Jays return to action Saturday, Sept. 5 at Randolph Macon where they will look to get back over .500.
