MANSFIELD, Pa. – The Slippery Rock University field hockey team lost at Mansfield, 1-0, Tuesday in Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference competition.
 
The defeat, which was SRU's fifth one-goal loss of the year, moves The Rock's record to 2-9 overall and 0-6 in league games while Mansfield improve to 8-5 overall and 2-2 inside the PSAC.
 
The Rock's defense was stellar Tuesday with the only blemish being a deflected shot attempt by Mansfield that snuck in the cage in the 14th minute. All told, SRU held Mansfield to its third-lowest shot on goal total (3) of the season while the Mountaineers' eight total attempts represented the nationally ranked team's fourth fewest amount of 2024.
 
Goalkeeper Grace Burker stopped one shot over 60 minutes.
 
For the game, Slippery Rock held advantages over Mansfield in total shots (9-8) and shots on goal (7-2) while the Mounties bettered SRU in penalty corners (7-4).
 
Offensively, Hilary Hoffman and Bailee Christman registered three shots apiece with Hoffman placing all her attempts on target and Christman landing two of hers on goal as well. Gianna Conti and Leslie Colliver chipped in one shot on goal each to round out SRU's offensive leaders.
 
While Mansfield maintained near constant pressure on The Rock's defense in the first quarter, SRU's back line did a solid job of limiting the Mountaineers attempts by allowing just one of Mansfield's first four attempts to even be on target all the while clearing four penalty corners in the opening 12 minutes.
 
Mansfield finally navigated around SRU's back line thanks to its fifth corner of the contest with 1:52 left in the opening quarter. The Mountaineers played several passes around the edge of the attacking circle before Ella Du Plessis slipped a pass into the middle of a congested zone that Sophia Vadnais deflected into the cage for the game's first goal.
 
Offensively, SRU recorded one attempt in the opening 15 minutes, but a Colliver shot in the eighth minute was stopped by Mansfield goalie August Lewis to keep The Rock off the board early on.
 
The second quarter was much closer in terms of possession as SRU's defense stymied Mansfield's offense by not allowing a Mountaineer shot to keep its deficit at one goal heading into the halftime break.  
 
Slippery Rock's best scoring chance in the first half came midway through the second quarter when it earned its first penalty corner of the game, but a Hoffman shot from the top of the zone was stopped and a foul was whistled just before SRU was able to get off another attempt at close range.
 
SRU came out the aggressors in the second half by drawing two quick penalty corners and even momentarily appearing to tie the game in the 32nd minute when Conti corralled a loose ball off a Lewis save and finished the series with what was briefly thought to be a goal only for the score to be waved off with a called Rock foul.
 
The Rock went on to fire off four more shots over the next five minutes before being awarded a penalty stroke to once again potentially tie the game in the 37th minute. However, a Christman attempt to the left was stopped by a diving Lewis to maintain Mansfield's one-goal edge heading into the fourth quarter.
 
While the final 15 minutes did feature a brief hailstorm it did not include any more goals as Mansfield successfully held SRU without a shot over the remainder of regulation en route to the 1-0 shutout victory.
 
Lewis made six saves to lead Mansfield while Vadnais' game-winner was her third goal of the year.
 
Slippery Rock returns home to host No. 1 Shippensburg University 2 p.m. Saturday on Senior Day at Mihalik-Thompson Stadium to open.





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