The Student News Site of Harvard-Westlake School

The Harvard-Westlake Chronicle

The Student News Site of Harvard-Westlake School

The Harvard-Westlake Chronicle

The Student News Site of Harvard-Westlake School

The Harvard-Westlake Chronicle

Field hockey clinches playoff place with 2 games left in season

By Robbie Loeb

The varsity field hockey team clinched a playoff berth with two games left to play, with a 4-2 record. The top two teams in the league advance to the playoffs.

Still on the schedule are home games against Chaminade and Louisville on Oct. 25 and 27. In their first matchup against the Chaminade Eagles, the Wolverines won narrowly, 1-0. Against Louisville, they won by a more convincing score of 5-0.

In their Homecoming game against Bonita, the Wolverines ran up the score early on, scoring all four of the goals in the shutout win in the first half. Lucy Putnam ’14 scored two goals in that game.

 “We worked a lot on goal scoring and defensive strategies in practice,” Taylor Lee ’13 said. “As we grow stronger in both, we continue to succeed.”

In the first 11 games of the season, the Wolverines have outscored their opponents 34-11. They hold an 8-3 overall record, losing to Huntington Beach, 1-3, and twice to Glendora. The losses against Glendora came on Sept. 30 and Oct. 19, both by scores of 2-3.

“We’re going to bounce back and hopefully see them in the playoffs and beat them then,” midfielder Brigid Sofen ’12 said of the loss to Huntington Beach.

 The Glendora losses represent their only league defeats so far this season.

 “We played a good game [against Glendora] and fought hard,” Lee said. “We just need to work on staying tight defensively.”
The playoffs begin on Oct. 31, followed by the semi-final round on Nov. 2 and the final on Nov. 3. 

 Last season, the team was undefeated in league but fell in the CIF semi-final to Newport Harbor, who scored the only goal of the game as overtime expired. This season, however, the Wolverines avenged last year’s early playoff exit with a 4-1 win over Newport Harbor in the first game of the season.

 Six of 19 players on varsity are underclassmen, and considering the general success this team has had so far this season, field hockey will most likely be a dominant team for the next few years to come.

 “We just need to keep winning and prevent any more goals,” Lee said. “[Winning CIF] would mean a lot to this team, especially for the seniors. With such a young team, we  had a lot to adjust to compared to the large amount of seniors we had last year.”

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Field hockey clinches playoff place with 2 games left in season