The Friends field hockey team (0-4-1) is still looking for its first victory of the season, and for goalie Hannah Gartner, a win can't come soon enough.

Friends coach Judy Turnbaugh said her goalie "is totally awesome", but Gartner, a 16-year-old junior in her third year as the varsity team's goalie, said she isn't finding much joy in being a standout player when her team doesn't win.

"When I make a lot of saves, it means the other teams are dominating, and that's not good," said Gartner, who has recorded 91 saves in five games this season, with the high a 27-save performance in a 3-0 loss to No. 13 McDonogh. "Sometimes I feel the pressure down at our end because I want us to win."

Gartner has been a goalie since she was in sixth grade and acknowledges that she might have gotten bored with the position had her teams totally dominated play and left her to idly man the net with little to do. But that's not the way her playing days have gone. There has always been action around her net.

Which might explain why she is so very good at stopping shots.

"I try to be aggressive," Gartner said, "and I think one of my strengths is making quick decisions. Of just knowing when to stay up and when to go down. Talking to the girls around me helps, too. My defense really helps me."

Gartner said her team is getting better. After an 0-3 start in which Friends allowed eight goals, the team has played its past two opponents very tough, playing to a 2-2 overtime tie with John Carroll and then losing in overtime to Park, 1-0.

Friends will try again for its first victory tomorrow at Seton Keough.

"In the past I've always liked the action in goal," she said. "But now, on varsity, I love when we're dominating play because what I want most is for us to win."

— Sandra McKee