The Kenyon College field hockey team secured a spot in the North Coast Athletic Conference tournament and moved into first place in the standings with a 4-0 victory over Oberlin College on Wednesday afternoon, then closed the regular season Saturday with a 2-0 win over Wooster to earn an NCAC league title tie.
The Ladies controlled the game against the Yeowomen from start to finish on Wednesday. Kenyon registered 10 of its 26 shots on goal and earned 14 penalty corners. The Kenyon defense locked down any attacking opportunity for Oberlin as it held the Yeowomen to zero shots in the game.
Kenyon scored the first goal of the night in the seventh minute when Sarah Metzmaier controlled a failed clearance by an Oberlin defender. Metzmaier beat her defender in the circle and sent a shot toward the cage. The senior forward’s shot went through the legs of Oberlin goalkeeper Mary Post to give the Ladies a 1-0 lead.
In the opening minute of the second quarter, the Ladies earned their fifth penalty corner of the game. On the restart, Metzmaier ended up with the ball once again and sent a long pass into the circle. Bella Kern swatted Metzmaier’s pass out of the air and into the cage for Kenyon’s second goal. Later in the quarter, off another penalty corner, Abby Timmins passed to Metzmaier, who put it in the back of the cage for her second goal of the game.
The Ladies played their advantage to the end, and in the closing seconds of the game, Hannah Paprotna’s shot went in as the horn sounded to give the Ladies a 4-0 victory.
In Kenyon’s final regular-season matchup the Ladies traveled to take on the College of Wooster, and with their 2-0 victory, they clinched the 2021 North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) regular season title.
The Ladies end their regular season schedule with a 13-4 overall record and a 7-1 mark in conference play. Kenyon’s Saturday win clinched the No. 1 seed in the upcoming NCAC Tournament.
Against Wooster, the Ladies took a while to warm up. They fired off four shots in the first quarter and no shots in the second quarter. Wooster had just one shot in each quarter, and the teams went scoreless into the intermission. Following the break, the Ladies snapped out of their funk and unloaded seven shots on the Fighting Scots’ cage. One of those shots came from Bella Kern, who recorded her 12th goal of the season. An initial shot from Sarah Metzmaier was saved by Wooster goalkeeper Zoe Semersky, but the rebound came to Kern, who corralled it and fired it over the goal line.
About five minutes into the fourth quarter, the Ladies tacked on an insurance goal from Lydia Turk, who found herself open in the middle of the circle and took the shot from about nine yards out. The goal was Turk’s first of the season and first of her collegiate career.
Kenyon's next opponent in the NCAC Tournament semifinal round, Tuesday at 3 p.m. on The Field at Benson Bowl, was the Ohio Wesleyan University Battling Bishops. Details were not available at press time.
