The Slippery Rock field hockey team took on the American International College (AIC) Monday, the team’s second inter-conference home game.
After losing the first game of the season to Bellarmine University by a score of 3-2 on Sunday, the Rock looked to improve offensively and come away with at least one win on the weekend.
SRU head coach Julie Swiney had several adjustments for her team to make following its loss in the season opener before taking on AIC.
“We did not play to our potential,” Swiney said. “We were very inconsistent and didn’t play at speed, which allowed Bellarmine to dominate the play. We made several adjustments which helped us to be more effective against AIC. Ultimately we played at speed and worked together for the majority of the game.”
In the first half the Green and White were aggressive offensively, keeping the ball on AIC’s side of the field the majority of the time. With just over 20 minutes left in the half, junior midfielder Renee Rosenblum scored on a tip in front of the Yellow Jacket goalie for the Rock’s first goal and Rosenblum’s first of the season.
At half the score remained 1-0 in Slippery Rock’s favor.
SRU’s offense continued to pressure AIC at the start of the second half as sophomore forward Alyssa Castle scored her first collegiate goal to give the Rock a two goal lead with 27 minutes left to play.
Later in the half, junior forward Megan McKay, assisted by freshman midfielder Hannah Downing, scored her second goal of the year to push the Rock lead to three goals. The assist gave Downing her first collegiate point.
Less than five minutes later, AIC freshman forward Amanda Dube sent a shot past Rock senior goalie Carlee DuMars to put AIC on the board.
On the day, DuMars made three total saves. Sophomore Kayla Mack was also credited with a defensive save late in the game, her second of the season.
With just over three minutes left to play in the game AIC sent a second shot past DuMars, seemingly decreasing the Rock’s lead to one. The goal however was waved off by the officials and Slippery Rock was able to maintain its two goal lead.
McKay thought it was an important call that had a big effect on the game’s outcome.
“I think that was definitely a game changer because when any team scores a goal it’s a big momentum shift in their favor and it gets the team pumped up,” McKay said. “So the fact that the goal was called off got our team excited to go right back down the field and score.”
One minute after the no goal call, Slippery Rock sophomore forward Kailee Krupski, assisted by McKay, scored the fourth SRU goal, essentially putting the game out of reach for AIC and the Rock cruised to their first victory of the season.
The Green and White will conclude its early season home stand with a game against Mansfield University on Sept. 10 before traveling to West Chester University for its first away game on Sept. 12.
