WASHINGTON — When a team dominates on offense, you expect them to win, but that wasn’t the case for American University’s field hockey team on Thursday.

In a 1-0 loss at the hands of the University of California, Davis, the Eagles controlled possession for all four quarters. Despite having eight penalty corners — two more than their average — American could not convert any of its opportunities.

UC Davis, on the other hand, scored the only goal of the game on one of its three penalty corners.

Even to the untrained eye, American’s offensive domination and failure to execute was obvious. In a matchup where the Eagles ripped 13 shots, five of which were on goal, a suffocating defense proved to be the answer against an aggressive offense.

“They made a good play and that’s the way it goes,” said Eagles coach Steve Jennings. “Where we struggled was being able to connect and get high angle opportunities in the attacking 25.”

The game was not for a total loss, though, as Jennings highlighted the team’s ability to control possession and limit its opponent’s shots. He did not make any excuses, however, noting that “at the end of the day you have to be able to put it in.”

The loss dropped the young American team to 3-4 on the season, but junior midfielder Noor Coenen knows there are not any excuses to be made.

“We have an old and experienced enough team to be able to capitalize in these kinds of games,” said Coenen. “One thing we talked about was ‘controlling the controllables.’”

Coenen has been arguably the Eagles’ best player this season, leading the team in goals, assists and points. Going into the game she had scored four goals in two victories over the weekend at the Terrapin Invitational, hosted by the University of Maryland in College Park.

A key play toward the end of the game was a non-call by the umpires when the Eagles thought they deserved a penalty call. Jennings and Coenen agreed in saying while they were frustrated, the match came down to more than refereeing.

“I wasn’t particularly pleased,” Jennings said. “We have to win in spite of the umpires.”

Despite the win, UC Davis coach Britt Broady was not entirely happy with her team’s play. Broady said that relying on defense is not how the offensively-minded Aggies aim to play.

“We don’t defend as much as we did today, and that’s credit to the American team,” said Broady. “We always defend in order to attack. We don’t defend to defend.”

Goalkeeper Chelsea Bigelow was the team’s lifeline against American with five saves on the day. Bigelow entered the matchup with a 0.95 goals against average and .868 save percentage, good for tenth and fourth respectively across all of NCAA Division 1 field hockey.

Bigelow is a bright spot for a developing team. Broady said after taking over as the UC Davis coach, rebooting the program meant starting from the back.

“She’s outstanding,” Broady said of Bigelow. “She’s one of the best goalkeepers in the country.”

As UC Davis continues to rebuild, a win over a strong American team makes a difference. Broady described the victory over American as “probably the most important win of our progress in the last three years.”

For American, well, the Eagles will just have to hope their offense can pull through next time.