The SRU field hockey team dropped three consecutive Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference road games in the last week and fell to 3-6 (0-2) on the season.
SRU suffered these losses after being ranked tenth in Division II.
They fell in one-goal games to both IUP and East Stroudsburg, as well as a two-goal game to number nine Kutztown.
On Wednesday night, SRU took on IUP. Junior Lindsay Brown started off the scoring for the Green and White when she netted her eighth goal of the season off a pass from junior Kelsey Gustafson with just over 20 minutes to go in the first half.
IUP went on to score the next three goals, a hat trick from IUP’s Casey McGowan. With eight and a half minutes to go in the game, Brown netted her second goal of the game, and ninth of the season. Sophomore Haley Martin got credit for the assist on Brown’s goal as the Rock fell 3-2. Junior goalie Courtney Lee faced six shots and made three saves. Slippery Rock put four shots on net.
Head coach Julie Swiney was disappointed with the outcome of the games for her squad.
“We must continue to improve our communication and overall discipline all over the field to prepare for the games ahead,” Swiney said.
SRU took on East Stroudsburg Saturday afternoon in East Stroudsburg in a back and forth game. ESU opened up the scoring less than nine minutes into the game. Redshirt junior Allison Shade put SRU on the board 15 and a half minutes into the game with her second goal of the season. ESU took the lead back with 11 seconds left in the first half.
The Brown and Gustafson combination connected again when Brown buried a goal three and a half minutes into the second half to tie the game up at two. ESU once again took the lead back halfway through the second half. Brown would tie the game up at three when she scored with less than three minutes to go to send the game into overtime. ESU scored two minutes and 43 seconds into overtime to give them a 4-3 overtime win.
Lee finished the game stopping 11 of 15 shots, while her squad in front of her threw 11 shots on net.
On Friday afternoon, ninth ranked Kutztown defeated SRU 5-3. Kutztown would jump out to a 2-0 lead in the first half. Martin scored her first goal of the season with five minutes and 10 seconds left in the first half to narrow Kutztown’s lead to 2-1.
Shade scored her first goal of the season less than three minutes into the second half. A little over two minutes later, Brown deflected sophomore Courtney Bradshaw’s shot into the net to put the Green and White up 3-2, but Kutztown scored the next three goals to earn the win.
Putting shots on net were not a problem for Slippery Rock. They fired 32 shots toward the Kutztown net, putting 23 on net. Dumars and Lee combined to face ten shots in the contest.
“Shooting and scoring have been goals of ours for the whole season,” Swiney said.
The Rock will return home on Saturday, after a four game road trip, with another PSAC game against the second ranked team in division II, Millersville.
