Best National Championship game you could ask for, a breakdown 

Stick together, no pun

crazy the lack of pro scene in feild hockey, the pincalcle of the sport is a NCAA championship, its like softball

Not just a championship.. 4 in a row as a player.

@@Teddy-kv5ns softball I'm surprised there's not like an upstart pro league or something yet, not really surprised about field hockey tho

Really incredible story. Recommend reading Brendan Marks's piece in The Athletic from September: "Last year, she led UNC to a national title. Now, at 23, she’s the head coach"

She went to my high school. I kept getting all these Facebook notifications about her yesterday

I watched it on the Ocho.

What’s the temperature there? They’re dressed for summer

@@TOCC50my thoughts exactly

@@TOCC50probably around 80+. It was in North Carolina and it’s currently 70 at almost midnight

​@@TOCC50if it was last week, a lot of places were in the 80s in the US

damn thats insane

She was in school for 5 years because of the extra Covid year. So she won 4 of 5, she was in school. Still an amazing feat.

@@chrisyoung4654 thanks for the correction

@@chrisyoung4654Can you win in a year where the championship wasn't played? Hard to count that against her.

@@seymourglass26 women’s field hockey played that year. It was the one season that UNC didn’t win the title during Matson’s career. Northwestern actually knocked UNC out of the tournament in the first round and went on to win the championship.

Well we are men of culture after all…

For Real!

It they wore the volleyball shorts it'd do a lot for the sport

as a goalie this is exactly right especially in a 1v1 situation like that, the defenseman had the girl who made the pass so you wanna focus solely on the girl with ball and come out way more aggressively than you would in a crowded circle

Soccer*

I can confirm that geometry remains Euclidean even in this sport

This is a real fan. It seems like y'all are knocking on the door. Next year may be the one.

Annabel is so good. Really is the best in the country. It was an epic game

@@seymourglass26we’ve been to the last 3 national championships and won one of them so hopefully yes!

when does the band play during the game?? is it marching band style? my middle school had field hockey, and jazz band, and never the twain shall twixt, or something

That's what I'm talkin' about! It's really fun.

They need to use bigger sticks

It's definitely a sport notorious for bad backs and sore knees when you get older.

Well then here’s a RU-vid comment direct to source. WELL FKN DONE

Can you take more than 1 shot (ie. shoot the rebound) or does that kill the play like in soccer and hockey? Also, if the goalie makes clear contact with it and, say, knocks it away, does that prematurely end it? Can these goalies not poke check through the legs like in ice hockey? Not a single one of those shootout goals where the player turned their back to the goalie should've gone in. I know the sticks are short but they could reach or at the very least it forces the player to go backhand which the only one who did missed.

smd jomboy, don't tell me what I should or should not like.

Hearing him say it was timed helped me a bit. I assumed, similar to ice hockey, the ball would need to be moving forward.

The strategy all comes from the fact they can't backhand, so the only move is to approach from to the left, box out and spin

@@pprb123nah you just twist the stick over with your top hand and you go the other way. The left hand spin move is just easy to execute because of the hook of the stick you can kind of lodge the ball in it but it’s much easier to take on a keeper front on so if you end up in that position the keeper has usually boxed of your first plan or you got scared and that’s what you ended up doing.

​@@BrianVanLanenit doesn't, you have 8 seconds, and if you manage to shoot, collect a rebound and shoot again in that time then it can score.

​@@Wang-kerit's also easier because it takes you from the goalie's stick side to their glove side, which is harder to defend low with

It is easy to see it coming, but what you don't see is that the attackers first make sure to draw the goalie a step too far to the right before committing to go back, which all comes from the fact that the goalies actually are trying to force them to the backhand. At higher levels the spin to the left is still very common but you usually see the attacker first bait something far more aggressive to the right first. For my 2c these goalies were taking that step right a little too easy and weren't even putting on pressure when they did. That said you still saw an example of the goalie not being baited far enough and getting a free kicker save by just matching the step left, and a diving left save that was very close with the glove too.

@@DNeonLamp Poke check through legs on left-hand side of stick to either get the ball or force the backhand. The goalies positioned themselves as if they wanted to take away the backhand without ever trying to poke it even from the outside. If you're going to be this unaggressive when you're up to the player's back, just don't give them the easier shot.

@@CanadianEhHole Couldn't agree more, as I said the goalies were committing without actually putting any pressure on the attacker when they committed.

Yeah, it looks so goofy. They are all running around like hunch backs. 1) Can't be good for you, and 2) makes it a bit hard to watch. I can appreciate the skill and athleticism, but it's just not enjoyable to watch when everyone is stumbling around hunched over.