MVU Field Hockey capped a trememndous season with a trip to the State Championship Game at UVM's artificial turf field on a coooooold November afternoon. They met defending DIII champ Rice with whom they'd split two games during the regular season. MVU's Thunderbirds dominated the action early, but Rice made the most of a rare scoring chance to go ahead 1-0. MVU didn't blink and struck right back, with Kate's Dakota hammering home the game tieing goal. MVU continued to control the ball, but just couldn't find the net as shots kept slipping wide. It stayed tied into the 2nd half. Into the final minutes. Into the first overtime. Into the second overtime. And finished tied!! Camille played a great game on offense, despite aggressive defense -- but MVU just could convert the resulting free hits. Hillary made a couple great saves and the Thunderbirds really played impressively on defense -- but it wasn't enough. Nowadays, ties are decided by penalty shots and after being out-played all day, Rice took the trophy with a penalty shot competition. Congrats to Rice for pulling it out for their 3rd consecutive championship and to the MVU Thunderbirds on a fine season and an incredible game!!

The late game and cloud cover meant little light for the game, so I shot at a high ASA and a low shutterspeed -- and even gaining access to the playing surface as a freelance photographer didn't keep me close to the action on the other end, so there's grain and blur in these. Time to upgrade for situations just like this - I'm anxious for the new lens!! :-)