WILDWOOD – Marquette field hockey coach Nina Walters always plans one step ahead.
At the preseason jamboree in August, Walters coached while wearing a dress in preparation of a baby shower she was planning to attend that afternoon.
But when the championship game of the Lafayette Field Hockey Tournament came down to a 1v1, penalty shootout competition Saturday, Walters had a horrifying realization.
“As soon as we got in there for the talk, I said, ‘It’s on me. We didn’t practice these. Win or lose, it’s on me. No pressure. Just go have fun.’”
No practice made perfect, as Marquette scored on three of its four shootout attempts and Fofie Holt made three saves to propel the Mustangs to a 3-2 (3-1) victory over Summit and a second Lafayette Tournament title in three seasons.
“For not practicing, they did great. They executed them very well,” Walters said.
The championship game required both Marquette and Summit to search for something extra. A beautiful centering pass from Summit senior Addy Timm was one-timed into the cage by senior Tracy Vu to open the scoring less than five minutes into the contest.
Marquette senior Emma Vendt, the reigning Suburban Yellow Offensive Player-of-the-Year, went the first 11 minutes without touching the ball. She finally received it at midfield, dribbled past two defenders and smacked a backhand into the cage at the 3:39 mark of the first quarter.
“It is not frustrating, it gets me pumped up,” Vendt said of her first quarter idleness. “I trust my team will get it to me eventually, and it’s like, ‘I can’t wait to get the ball and go and attack.”
In the second quarter, a blistering reverse shot by Marquette freshman Sydney Rosen was tipped home by Vendt to give the Mustangs the lead. Rosen was brilliant in the midfield, displaying advanced stickhandling skill to serpentine through defenders before finding an open teammate.
Rosen, who started playing the sport in seventh grade, practices every day with a weighted field hockey ball to increase her quickness with the ball on her stick. Her 20-yard missile towards the Summit goal staked the Mustangs a 2-1 lead at halftime.
“I just touched it out and saw that no one was on my back, so I aimed my stick to cage, hit a reverse and hoped it went there. I looked up and was like, ‘Wow,’” Rosen said.
Summit (6-1-1), which won its pool championship at the Gateway Classic a week earlier, mounted a furious charge in the fourth quarter in search of a second trophy in two weeks. During a corner opportunity, a Summit player was bodychecked as she was attempting a shot near the crease. The foul resulted in the awarding of a stroke, which freshman Franky Neil smoked into the left corner of the cage to tie the game at 2.
Tournament rules called for no 7v7 overtime period so at the end of regulation, the game immediately moved to a five-round, 1v1 penalty shootout, where a player has 10 seconds to try to score a goal.
Two years earlier, Walters thoroughly prepared her team for 1v1s in practice in anticipation of a Lafayette Tournament game going the distance. The championship game against Kirkwood did advance to 1v1s and Marquette prevailed.
On Saturday, Walters and the Mustangs were figuring things out on the fly.
“I asked if anyone did not want to take it. Nobody raised their hand. Then, I asked if anyone did want to take it. Still, nobody raised their hand,” Walters said.
Vendt went first.
“I was very nervous. I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, what am I going to do? I haven’t done this in so long?’ But my team helped me calm down and told me to do what feels natural, and that’s what I did,” she said.
Vendt set the tone with the first goal before Summit sophomore Addison Pashia tied it. Still tied 1-1 in the third round, Rosen stood alone in the center of the field with the ball at her stick waiting for the whistle.
“I was pretty nervous when (Walters) called my name, but when I got on the line, I told myself, ‘I got this.’ I put my plan in my head and executed it,” Rosen said.
Rosen moved right and delivered a perfect shot against the grain. Junior Sydney Rubenstein made it three goals out of four attempts for the Mustangs. Meanwhile, Marquette goalie Fofie Holt had taken the persona of a falconer, taming three consecutive Summit shooters who flew her direction.
“I only had done (a penalty shootout) one time before, so I didn’t really know what to do. It was really scary. I just took three steps up, shuffled and tried to predict where they were going to go,” Holt said.
Scheduled for five rounds, the penalty shootout only required four, which surprised Holt as much as anyone.
“I was standing there after that (final) save and my teammates were cheering. I just thought they were happy. I didn’t realize the game was over,” Holt said.
Despite the loss, Summit coach Andrew Neil liked what he saw from his team.
“It was kind of a character game. We didn’t roll over when Marquette got the lead, we kept fighting, drew corners, capitalized on the stroke we had. We played hard and I was pleased with our performance,” Neil said.
Marquette (3-1) hopes that hoisting the championship plaque at the Lafayette Tournament will create a springboard effect in preparation for a grueling schedule that includes games against St. Joseph’s, Villa Duchesne and John Burroughs – three teams that advanced to the Midwest Tournament final four last season.
“It’s a great way to start the season,” Walters said. “We know that we can compete.”
For a complete photo gallery from the Lafayette Field Hockey Tournament, visit the link below: https://benvessa.smugmug.com/Field-Hockey/2025-Season/Lafayette-Field-Hockey-Tournament-09-06-25