Richmond, Va. - It was an ideal start for the 2024 Old Dominion Field Hockey team, defeating Richmond by a margin of 3 - 0. Old Dominion scored on two of their first three corners and did not look back on the way to its first win of the season. A dominating opening performance by the Monarchs ensured that the action was mainly found in the opposing teams half with a high press that the Spiders could barely break through.
Goals scored by Tess Jedeloo in the first quarter and Serena Langendoen in the second quarter gave the Monarchs a two goal advantage as they headed in for halftime. Jedeloo found the net again in the fourth quarter to make the lead three. Richmond could not fight their way back into the contest.
Rina Tsioles & Frederique Zandbergen teamed up to assist every Monarch goal from their corner routine. Jedeloo finished the match the highest goalscorer with 2 goals.
Suus Broers finished the match with a full 60 minutes in goal, securing the win, and recording three saves.
The Monarchs finished the match with 13 shots, 9 on goal. They had five total corners during the game and scored on three of them. A 60% corner success rate.
Coach Andrew Griffiths gave the following quote following the team's victory: “Firstly, it’s great to win the first game of the season! We haven’t done this for a few years so that was our first focus. We also earned a shutout, played a solid game, and I felt we controlled the game flow for most of the stages of the game. The most positive thing is that we won, yet we still have a lot of areas to improve on.”
“Richmond is a much improved team this year and they are tough and fiery. So overall I’m happy with how we played, especially considering we have five new starters in the lineup from last year’s team.”
ODU gets their first win of the season and gives the Spiders their first loss. Bringing the all-time record against Richmond to 38-0.
The Monarchs will be back in action on Sunday, September 1, when they travel to Hempstead, New York to take on Hofstra.