Raffi Fragomeni had faced five penalty strokes in her four-year career as goalkeeper, successfully defending two. Her sixth came against New Hampshire senior forward Nicole Poulakis, the second-ranked goal scorer in the NCAA, in the final 30 seconds of a 1-1 game.
With the fall of the referee’s hand, Poulakis pushed the ball up towards the upper left corner of the cage. Fragomeni lunged right with her stick, but just missed what would become the game-winning goal.
“It’s really tough,” she said. “I knew it was coming, because I’d seen her before.”
“But it was” — Fragomeni sighed — “It was right there.”
The field hockey team went 1-1 this weekend in a pair of one-point games, squeezing out Boston University 1-0 before falling 2-1 against the University of New Hampshire.
Junior defender Katie Gibb was the only Leopard (5-1 Patriot League, 10-6 overall) to find the back of the cage this weekend with what is shaping up to be her baseline tip-in motif on penalty corners. Both matchups were stalemated until her conversions in the third quarter.
Lafayette was deadlocked with the Terriers (2-3 Patriot League, 5-10 overall) in the first half of Friday’s away battle, with both teams held to two shots.
“Taking their speed out of the game is really key,” Fragomeni said.
The eventual game-winning penalty arrived halfway through the third quarter for the Leopards. Freshman midfielder Rosalie van Gool rocketed off a shot that bounced off the goalkeeper right into the stick of Gibb, the inserter, on the baseline for the rebound.
While the Terriers looked to mount a comeback, the Leopards successfully held their conference opponent off, extending their shutout streak against Boston to three.
In Sunday’s home game, the Leopards hit the ground running, outshooting their opponents (9-6 overall) 5-1 in the first quarter — including a barrage of shots in the final 90 seconds — but could not convert.
“We came out really strong in New Hampshire,” Gibb said. “You’ve got to really keep that throughout the game, and I think we did struggle with that a little bit.”
In the final minutes of the half, Lafayette unleashed another storm of offensive pressure, but could not grasp a lead going into halftime.
“We were knocking on the door of having goals,” Fragomeni said.
But with teams like New Hampshire, “you’re not going to have four quarters of a team not being able to solve a defensive problem,” she added.
New Hampshire opened the second half with fire in their cleats, releasing a volley of shots that forced blocks by Fragomeni.
The attack remained unanswered until two minutes before the final quarter, when the Leopards were handed a penalty corner. Junior defender Lena Thedrian launched her signature drag flick towards the cage, and it was tipped in left past the goalkeeper by Gibb to cut the tie.
Unlike her three previous near-identical goals this season, this one was “actually the plan,” Gibb said — though it had not worked against the team’s own defense in practice.
Upon scoring, Gibb jumped up, arms in the air, and fell to the ground.
“I’m so shocked every time I score, I don’t think that it’s real,” she said. “I was so shocked that it worked because it hadn’t been working.”
However, in the fourth quarter, and with the Maroon and White down two from cards, New Hampshire capitalized on a rebound off Fragomeni to finally see the ball past her into the cage.
“She saw that I was trying to kick it away from where the shot just happened, and she literally backdoor cut on her defenders,” Fragomeni explained. “She got it, and then honestly, it came towards me, and I probably should’ve had that one.”
Then, the Wildcat penalty stroke gave the visiting team a lead to carry through the final minute.
“We definitely need to prevent things like that,” Fragomeni said. “Definitely a good learning experience for us in game management.”
The Leopards will travel to the University of Delaware (6-9 overall) on Friday for their last matchup before the Patriot League Tournament next week.
Fragomeni mentioned that there are a few injuries for this upcoming weekend within the team, but that the team will be “full go for the tournament.”
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