The Slippery Rock field hockey team continued to struggle on the road as it failed to complete a comeback at Mercyhurst Friday night. The loss drops SRU’s record to 5-10 and 2-6 in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC). Mercyhurst (7-7, 4-3 PSAC) now sits in third place in the conference and will be looking to make one final push for the playoffs before the end of the regular season.
Slippery Rock has had trouble on the road for the entire season, losing five of its six road games, its lone win coming against winless Mansfield University (0-14). In contrast, The Rock has won four of its nine games at home.
At Mercyhurst, The Green and White found itself with an early three-goal deficit. After allowing Mercyhurst to score two goals on its first three shots senior goaltender Carlee DuMars was pulled in the 12th minute in favor of sophomore backup Nicole Bream. Bream allowed one goal on two shots in the final 57 minutes.
In the final minute of the first half, freshman forward Allison Grant, assisted by sophomore Kailee Krupski, scored her second career goal to cut Mercyhurst’s lead to two goals just before halftime. It was Krupski’s first assist of the year.
Bream and The Rock defense held Mercyhurst scoreless in the second half, which gave the offense a chance to make a comeback. Eight minutes into the second half, Krupski scored her sixth goal of the year, putting The Rock only one goal behind Mercyhurst. Senior forward Courtney Bradshaw assisted on Krupski’s goal, Bradshaw’s team leading fifth assist of the year. Krupski’s three point contest gives her 13 total point on the year, good for second on the team only behind junior Megan McKay.
Despite the late push, SRU was unable to complete the comeback and fell to Mercyhurst 2-3 in regulation.
Slippery Rock actually out shot Mercyhurst in the loss with 13 shots, putting nine on goal, while the Lakers only put up 10 shots, five on goal. Even though The Rock limited Mercyhurst to only five shots on goal, DuMars and Bream combined to make only two saves, allowing three of the five shots to find the net.
With only three games remaining this season The Rock will look to overcome number three ranked West Chester University (12-3) as its celebrates senior day in their next game at home on Saturday Oct. 24th. West Chester features a high powered offense that averages over three goals a game is lead by second year forward Rachal Toppi whose 17 goals is the second best individual mark in the PSAC.
