The penalty corner

Nearing the midway point of its season, the Boston University field hockey team has scored 31 goals in three different ways through seven games.

Although field goals are common and penalty strokes are incredibly dangerous to give up, the crème de la crème of these three scoring opportunities is the penalty corner.

The penalty corner trumps its counterparts because it's the best of both worlds, combining the frequency of a field goal with the danger of a penalty stroke.

A penalty corner occurs when the defending team commits certain fouls inside the shooting circle. Those fouls can range from touching the ball with your body to using the wrong side of the stick to hit the ball. Regardless of the foul, a penalty corner is a very advantageous scoring opportunity.

"Because of the advantage in numbers and having the opportunities to practice the set plays, it's a huge opportunity," said senior back Sarah Hudak. "We practice them daily because they should be a goal almost every time."

The penalty corner play begins with an offensive player, called the "inserter," taking the ball to a designated spot on the back line - also the goal line - while her teammates await her pass at the top of the shooting circle. The inserter then pushes the ball in to her teammates, with one of them, termed the "stick stopper," receiving the pass.

The ball must clear the circle before a shot can be fired on the net. The stick stopper will then push it back into the circle for the shot, which can be taken by her or one of her teammates, called the "battery." A goal scored on a "hit" cannot enter the net in the air higher than roughly 18 inches, and if it is scored on a "scoop" or a "flick," it can enter the net at any height.

Defensively, only five players are allowed behind the back line, forcing them to wait inside the goal. The rest of the team must remain behind the center line until the ball has been inserted.

"Offensively and defensively it's a significant play because the offensive team gets such a numerical advantage," said BU coach Sally Starr. "Only four defensemen and a goalie are allowed [to defend] where [the offense] can have as many as seven, eight or nine people attacking."

For the Terriers, the inserter is senior midfielder Pam Spuehler, while Hudak usually plays the role of stick stopper. When they are on the offensive, the Terriers have the option of choosing from any one of the team's 10 different corner looks. Conversely, the Terriers have two different corner defensive schemes with a few variations depending on the scenario.

Spuehler brings several skills to the table in her position as the inserter, Starr explained.

"Pam has very good ball speed," Starr said. "She has very good direction and pace and she's very good at keeping the ball flat, which makes it easy for the stick stopper to put a good stop on the ball. And the other thing is Pam's able to score goals from that insert position."

After Spuehler inserts the ball, it looks as if mass chaos has broken out on the field. But despite how it may look to the uninformed eye, it is actually organized chaos.

"Each person has a specific job," Starr said. "Each person is going to different spots."

The advantage to having so many different corner looks is simply the potential for fooling the defense. There is a lot of strategy that goes into deciding which look to use at which time, and as a defense, you can only hope that you're guessing right as to which look the offense will execute.

"With having more of a veteran team, you might have a corner called but [the players] have the ability to make an adjustment, to put the ball in a different, more advantageous spot than what was called by reading the corner defense," Starr said.

"On corner defense you're just hoping it's going to match up well with their attack and there's a lot of strategy involved," she added. "You're really trying to put doubt into the opposing team and opposing defense as to what you may run."

Good corner attacks are a key part of every team's strategy for victory.

"Studying other team's corners is important because they usually have a routine play they like to think is their best and shutting down an opposing team's corners, or not giving them up at all, is essential for winning a game," Hudak said.