ERIE, Pa. – The Slippery Rock University field hockey team earned a 2-0 shutout victory Tuesday at Mercyhurst University.
 
Tuesday's win was the fourth consecutive victory for SRU against Mercyhurst and its seventh in the last eight games overall in the series.
 
The road victory also improves The Rock's record to 4-12 on the season overall and 1-7 inside the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference while the Lakers drop to 2-13 overall and 0-8 in league games. SRU has now won two of its last three games.
 
Freshman Madison Shomo scored a pair of second-half goals to lead Slippery Rock in the victory. The two scores marked the first points of the rookie's collegiate career.
 
Leslie Colliver and Bailee Christman set up Shomo's big night with a pair of assists. Colliver now leads SRU in total points with 11 on four goals and a team-best three assists with one game to go in the season. Meanwhile, Christman's point marked her second assist of the year.
 
The Rock's defense was spearheaded by goalkeeper Grace Burker, who made six saves en route to her 18th career win.
 
Rounding out Slippery Rock's leaders on the night was Erin Roland, Grace Maynard and Paige Shannon. Roland matched Shomo with a team-high two shots while Maynard and Shannon tallied one attempt each.
 
The first half was a defensive stalemate that saw Slippery Rock limit the Lakers to just one shot on goal, a first quarter attempt that Burker stopped, in addition to clearing a pair of corners.
 
Meanwhile, SRU's offense earned four penalty corners and compiled two shots of its own over the opening 30 minutes via a pair of attempts by Shannon and Roland which were both off target, as the two evenly matched teams headed into halftime in scoreless tie.
 
Mercyhurst opened the third quarter the aggressors as the host Lakers registered five penalty corners and three shots in the first three minutes of the second half. However, SRU's defense withstood the barrage with Burker coming up with three clutch saves to maintain the tie.  
 
The game remained scoreless until the 43rd minute when Samantha Karmonick fired an entry pass into the circle that Colliver deflected to Shomo who in turn slipped a shot past a charging Kayla Desormeau to give SRU a 1-0 lead at 42:44.
 
The Rock maintained their one-goal advantage into the fourth quarter as Burker made two more saves in the final quarter before SRU added another insurance goal off Shomo's stick courtesy of Christman's assist in the 55th minute.
 
Slippery Rock held Mercyhurst without a shot over the final five minutes of regulation to put any thoughts of a home comeback to rest on the way to The Rock's second shutout of the year.
 
Mercyhurst closed the game with advantages over SRU in total shots (7-6), shots on goal (6-4) and penalty corners (8-5).
 
Slippery Rock concludes its season when it hosts No. 4 Bloomsburg University for a final PSAC game 4 p.m. Friday at Mihalik-Thompson Stadium on Senior Day.





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