Defense Holds Hofstra Scoreless

Rain forced the Columbia field hockey team to spend much of the week practicing indoors and led to the postponement of Friday's match-up with Penn. But Sunday was a beautiful, sunny day for the Lions, both literally and figuratively, as they pulled out a 1-0 upset over Hofstra.

"We've learned to become very flexible this season with so many road games" head coach Katie Beach said. "We played a lot indoors this week, working on tackling, passing, and so on. I think it actually helped us as we carried all that we'd practiced onto the field."

Junior Laura Cosan scored the game's only goal in the 17th minute off an assist from sophomore Liz Reeve. Reeve fired a pass from the right side of the field to Cosan, who was waiting to the left of the circle. The junior then sent her second goal of the season between the legs of Pride goalie Jess Cowperthwait.

Following Cosan's goal, the rest of the game was about the Columbia defense's holding up in the face of relentless pressure. Hofstra took 12 shots in the game, including four in the game's waning minutes, and drew nine penalty corners, compared to just two for the Lions. But the Light Blue defense, led by junior goalie Kristina George, was able to keep the Pride off the scoreboard for the full 70 minutes.

"Defensively we were very strong," Reeve said. "We stuck to the game plan and came out victorious."

"The defense really concentrated on forcing them wide, so it was mostly just angled shots that really made my job easy," George said. "I just had to keep everyone focused at the back."

Hofstra had lost only three games this year, all at the hands of ranked teams. It was the first victory for Columbia over the Pride since 2000.

"It was a huge win to beat Hofstra," Reeve said. "It was great to get to 6-6 and get the win, especially with the all Ivy games coming up."

While their conference game against Penn was postponed until October 26th, Sunday's victory was more than just another non-conference win for the Lions. Hofstra, one of the top programs in the metro area, has been sharing their home field with Columbia for much of the season due to renovations at Baker Field.

"We just played a great game," Beach said. "We played our passing game with great composure and poise and did a great job with the opportunities we had."

The Lions will face Dartmouth next weekend in search of their first Ivy win of the season.