In the first game of Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) play the Slippery Rock University field hockey team lost to Bloomsburg University on the road on Wednesday night.
Prior to Wednesday’s loss, SRU was coming off of a 1-2 home overtime loss to number four ranked East Stroudsburg University and a 2-1 win on the road against Lindenwood University.
The Rock forced overtime against ESU when senior forward Courtney Bradshaw scored her first goal of the season off an assist by junior midfielder Renee Rosenblum to tie the score at 1-1. Senior goalie Carlee DuMars was tagged with the loss despite making 16 saves, seven just in the overtime period.
SRU head coach Julie Swiney liked the way her team, especially DuMars, played against ESU.
“It was great to see grit and determination from the group against ESU.” said Swiney. “Carlee played great and really helped us stay in the game and have an opportunity to win. The team made many improvements offensively and defensively which helped us to compete against another tough opponent.”
Against Lindenwood the Green and White had two freshmen score their first career goals to power the team to the win. Freshmen forwards Megan Kane and Allison Grant each scored their first goals for Slippery Rock and junior forward Megan McKay tallied one assist to push her team leading point total to 11.
On Wednesday The Rock took and early lead over Bloomsburg when sophomore defender Kayla Mack scored her first goal of the season two and a half minutes into the game. Assisting on the goal was Bradshaw.
Despite the early goal Slippery Rock was shut out the rest of the way, only totaling four shots to Bloomsburg’s 16. Bloomsburg also held the advantage in penalty corners 11-4.
With 13 minutes left in the first half Bloomsburg forward Stephanie Halsted put a shot past DuMars to tie the game at one goal each.
DuMars was challenged in the second half, facing 10 total shots and making seven of her 11 saves.
As the second half was winding down, it looked as though SRU was heading into their second overtime game of the week. However, Bloomsburg scored twice with four minutes left in regulation to secure the win.
McKay is currently tied for sixth in the PSAC scoring race with her 11 points and DuMars is tied for second in total saves with 69.
The loss puts the team at 3-5 as they look to take on Millersville University at home on Saturday.
