When the Springside Chestnut Hill Academy Blue Devils played a field hockey game on Oct. 7 that was also a fundraising event for Breast Cancer Awareness Month, emotions were running high. More important than the Devils’ 5-2 victory over Hun School of Princeton was the recognition of a loss that hit very close to home.

Margaretha “Gretta” Ehret, the older sister of SCH head coach Emilee Ehret Mahon, passed away in July after struggling for six years with stage four breast cancer.

A Wyndmoor native who was a multisport athlete at Penn Charter (‘05), Ehret signed with the University of Virginia to play field hockey and later transferred to the University of Pennsylvania. She would return to both Penn and Penn Charter as a coach, and also had great success as head of the program at Merion Mercy Academy.

Soon after her cancer diagnosis in 2019, schools and colleges began to organize “Dream Crazy” fundraising events to honor Ehret and to benefit organizations combating cancer, particularly Metavivor, which exclusively funds metastatic breast cancer research.

Earlier this year, the Gretta Ehret Dream Crazy Foundation was created, with its stated missions being to inspire children through the power of athletics and to work towards a cure for metastatic breast cancer. This year, Mahon noted, 70% of the funds raised will go to the new foundation, and 30% to Metavivor.

Going into Tuesday’s tilt, Springside Chestnut Hill had an overall record of 7-3-1, while Hun School was 5-3. Hun’s league, the Mid-Atlantic Prep League, has been dominated in recent years by The Hill School, which started the month with a 2-1 overtime win over Inter-Ac League leader Academy of Notre Dame. Notre Dame had been undefeated and was ranked number one in the United States.

At the outset of last week’s match, SCH and Hun ranged back and forth on the attack. A little over five minutes in, Hun was awarded the first penalty corner of the game, which resulted in a shot that Blue Devils freshman goalie Maya Taglieber saved with a leg pad. This would turn out to be the visitors’ only penalty corner of the day, and the only save recorded for Taglieber.

At the other end, the hosts generated 16 shots, and 16 saves were marked down for Hun’s junior goalie, Lynsey Parrott.

SCH got on the scoreboard off of a corner play with 5:10 remaining in the opening period. The ball was hit down near the left side of the cage, where junior Amelia Clements nudged it toward the middle and her classmate Reese Westerman knocked it in.

Westerman scored again less than three minutes later and was assisted once more by Clements, who drove the ball inside from out at the right edge of the circle.

Raiders freshman Evelyn Miller scored to break the shutout with 90 seconds left in the opening period. Early in the second frame, senior Nadia Gross assisted on a goal by junior Sydney Jacoby to make it 3-1 at the half.

On a Springside Chestnut Hill penalty corner in the first minute of the second half, a drive by Gross was stopped by the Raiders’ Parrott. The 3-1 halftime score stayed on the board until just seven seconds remained in the third quarter, when Clements scored from the right side of the circle after receiving the ball from junior Molly McGinn.

The scoring for the Blue Devils was completed less than two-and-a-half minutes into the fourth period, when Westerman made the insertion on a corner play to the top of the circle. From there, Gross drove the ball right back down into the goal.

The Raiders were able get one point back before the end of the game, with Miller scoring her second goal with 4:05 remaining.

Within the Inter-Ac, Springside Chestnut Hill was in third place with a record of 3-2, while Penn Charter was fifth at 1-4 and Germantown Academy was sixth, at 0-5. A seventh member of the league, all-girls Baldwin School, only plays against junior varsity Inter-Ac teams.