INDIANA, Pa. - The Slippery Rock University field hockey team lost to Indiana University (Pa.) on the road, 2-1, Tuesday in Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference competition.
 
The PSAC defeat drops The Rock's record to 2-6 overall and 0-2 in league games while the host Crimson Hawks improve to 5-2 overall and 2-0 inside the conference.
 
Gianna Conti led Slippery Rock Tuesday by scoring her team-leading third goal of the season. With nine games remaining in the regular season, Conti needs just one more goal to match her total from all of last season.
 
Conti was one of three Rock players to record two shots against IUP along with Leslie Colliver and Hilary Hoffman. Madison Shomo, Erin Roland and Kayla Del Vecchio all added one shot apiece as well.
 
Goalkeeper Grace Burker was solid for the near duration of the night on the way to a seven-save performance. Burker has now made at least five saves in five of The Rock's eight games this season.
 
Slippery Rock struck first Tuesday night when Conti fired off one shot that was stopped by IUP goalie Anita Planella only for Conti to gather the loose ball and slip a second attempt past Planella at the 9:20 mark of the game.
 
Conti's goal marked the first first-quarter goal for The Rock in 2023. Following Conti's strike, SRU cleared three IUP corners and Burker made one save to carry its one-goal advantage into the second quarter.
 
Indiana opened the second quarter by pressuring The Rock's defense and earning three penalty corners before Sydney Schmouder finally broke through for the game-tying goal in the 18th minute.
 
The remainder of the quarter saw Burker and Planella trade saves as the game went into halftime knotted at 1-1.
 
Burker continued her stellar play by making three saves in the span of 20 seconds to start the second half, but the Crimson Hawks' attack managed to get a second goal by Burker when Claire Murphy tallied her first score of the season early in the 35th minute for a go-ahead goal that Slippery Rock could never answer.
 
IUP finished out the win by successfully fending off six Rock corners in the final 25 minutes while holding SRU to just two more shots, an attempt by Hoffman that went wide in the third quarter and Roland's attempt which was saved by Planella in the 56th minute, over the remainder of regulation.
 
For the game, Indiana held advantages over The Rock in total shots (11-9), shots on goal (9-5), and penalty corners (14-7).  
 
Slippery Rock returns home to host No. 8 Millersville University 11 a.m. Saturday at Mihalik-Thompson Stadium on Alumni Day.




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