EDWARDSVILLE - Junior goalie Taylor Mollett was a standout for the Tigers with 16 saves for Edwardsville in their home field hockey opener Wednesday afternoon at Tiger Stadium in a 2-0 loss to Kirkwood.
The Tigers played very well, coming off a successful weekend at the Gateway Tournament in Maryland Heights, Mo., going 2-1-1, and had a great second half against the Pioneers, but couldn't find the range against the Kirkwood defense.
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"We had a great second half," said Edwardsville head coach Jaimee Henderson, "we had in the first half to just get out momentum going, but the girls played to the end."
The defensive backfield of senior Sydnee Campbell and juniors Avery Osborne and Taylor Heberer played very well throughout the entire match and were solid throughout, providing guidance and leadership to a young team that plays hard for the entire 60 minutes.
"They all put in solid performances today," Henderson said. "They have the most experience at that level. We're very young, and we have a lot of sophomores. I don't have any issues with their effort level."
As the season progresses, Henderson thinks that the team and the younger players will see improvement.
"We also have a lot of soccer players on the team, and they're all making the adjustments from soccer to field hockey," Coach Henderson said.
As mentioned, the Tigers had a successful weekend at the Gateway Tournament this past weekend, playing three teams from out-of-state along with St. Louis school St. Dominic's Catholic. Edwardsville played against a team from Michigan along with a pair of teams from the Louisville, Ky., area.
"We're coming off a great performance at the Gateway Tournament," Henderson said. "We won two and tied another, and the one we tied, we had the lead until the last three minutes. And all the teams we played were from out-of-state, except for one."
Edwardsville is now 2-3-1 for the season, and next plays on Monday at Clayton, the first in a three-game road swing that sees the Tigers also playing at Rockwood Summit in Fenton, Mo., and Nerinx Hall Catholic in Webster Groves, Mo. Henderson is looking forward to the challenge from the Greyhounds.
"This will be another good test against Clayton," Henderson said. "We're all hanging in there, everyone is doing what they need to do, and you can't ask for anything more than that."
Dan Brannan also contributed to this story.
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