LEXINGTON, Va. – The Slippery Rock University field hockey team beat Queens University, 3-1, Monday afternoon in neutral site non-conference play at Washington & Lee Turf Field located in Lexington, Virginia.
The win improves The Rock's record to 2-0 on the year, while Queens falls to 0-2 on the season. This marks the seventh time in team history that SRU has begun the season 2-0 and the first time since 2014.
Slippery Rock's seven combined goals through two games is tied for the fourth highest total in program history to begin the season. Also, The Rock's plus-five goal margin through the first two games of the season is tied for fifth most in program history.
SRU's freshmen continued to shine during the second game of the season, with
Abby McKay and
Brittany Morgan recording one goal apiece.
Sam Geroski also recorded her first goal of the season off of an assist by teammate
Liz Wolfe.
Kayla Ulrich (seven shots) and
Courtney Page (four shots) were aggressive offensively for The Rock. While McKay, Geroski and
Allison Martin all recorded three shots of their own.
The Rock's goalkeepers split time for the second consecutive game with
Nicole Bream playing the first half and
Maddie Murphy subbing in for the second. Bream registered four saves during her 35 minutes of play, while Murphy allowed one goal and recorded three saves during her time.
Both teams started slow offensively. It wasn't until the 29:43 mark that Slippery Rock recorded its first goal of the day after McKay corralled a deflection and scored from the middle of the circle to send The Rock into halftime leading 1-0.
The Rock's offense then began to heat up in the second half. Morgan scored her first collegiate goal to make it 2-0 at the 47:59 mark. Less than six minutes later, Geroski scored off of a Wolfe assist setup on a penalty to push SRU's lead out to 3-0. The Royals added a late goal, a strike by Kayleigh Lawrence at the 66:57 mark, to avoid being shutout.
As a team, SRU led Queens in total shots (28-13), shots on goal (16-8) and penalty corners (9-6).
Queen's goalkeeper Kelsey Fringer recorded 12 saves over 70 minutes.
Up next, Slippery Rock returns home to host Mansfield University 4 p.m. Wednesday for a non-conference contest at Mihalik-Thompson Stadium.
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