This past week, the Slippery Rock University field hockey team continued their early season success.
The Rock racked up a 4-0 lead over Mercy College last Friday in the first half, before the game was cancelled due to lighting.
Unfortunately, the statistics from the game do not count and there are no plans to reschedule the game.
In their 1-0 win over Lindenwood on Sunday, Allison Shade scored the only goal off of a rebounded shot by Ally Banks.
However, the Green and White dominated the stats, outshooting Lindenwood 10-2.
Sophomore goalie Courtney Lee played all 70 minutes and had two saves to earn the shut out for the Rock against Lindenwood.
SRU played the No. 1 ranked field hockey team of Shippensburg University on Tuesday, losing the tightly contested game 2-1.
With the loss to Ship, the Rock fell to 3-1 overall and 0-1 in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference-West division.
Sophomore midfielder Kelsey Gustafson scored the only goal for the Rock on a rebounded shot from sophomore Kaili Simmons during the 60th minute of the game.
SRU gave up an early lead in the first half, but cut the deficit to one with 10 minutes to go.
However, they did not register another shot in the game and suffered their first loss of the season.
Before, the Shippensburg game, Slippery Rock had outshot their opponents 64-28, and outscored them 10-2.
So far this season, the team already has multiple-point scorers.
Last week’s PSAC-West Player of the Week, junior Kaitlin McGinnis, leads the Green and White with four goals on the season.
Freshman Courtney Bradshaw has posted two goals and an assist, along with Gustafson who has posted the same numbers so far this season.
Lee has been phenomenal in goal this season, who before the Shippensburg game had posted a .36 GAA with a shutout to go along with it.
She posted great numbers in the Shippensburg game as well, only giving up two goals to go with six saves.
Simmons commented on the team’s success so far this year.
“These games were definitely a good indication of how strong our upcoming season will be,” Simmons said. “We’re finally dominating other teams and taking advantage of our scoring opportunities.”
Head Coach Julie Swiney said that team play and communication is leading to the accomplishments they have had so far.
“We are finding success because we are working as a team and following our game plan.”
Swiney said that the schedule will continue to be more difficult, but the team will work to keep up the good work.
“Our schedule is going to become more challenging as we move forward in the sesaon,” Swiney said. “We will work to improve each day at practice to find success.”
The Green and White will be back in action this weekend when they play back-to-back road games at Bloomsburg University today at 2 p.m. and Millersville University tomorrow at 4.p.m.
