MILLERSVILLE, Pa. - The Slippery Rock University field hockey team lost a tightly contested Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference game on the road Friday at Millersville University, 2-1.
 
The setback moves The Rock's record to 2-6 overall and 0-3 inside the PSAC while the Marauders improve to 5-4 overall and 2-1 in league games.
 
As a team, SRU held advantages over the Marauders in both total shots (9-8) and penalty corners (9-5) while MU bettered SRU in shots on goal (5-3).
 
Slippery Rock was led by Hilary Hoffman, who produced a game-high four total shots in addition to posting her first goal of the season courtesy of a Leslie Colliver assist.
 
Colliver's assist was her second of the year and 11th of her career. Colliver now sits in a tie for fourth place with Gabrielle Malishchak (2009-12), Kailee Krupski (2014-17) and Kayla Del Vecchio (2019-23) on SRU's career assist ledger.
 
Sammy Graci placed one of her two shots on goal while the trio of Megan Rude, Christina Clymer and Feli Stockler added to SRU's attempt total as well with one apiece.
 
Goalkeeper Grace Burker paced a spirited Rock defensive effort with three saves as well.
 
SRU opened the game by stopping a pair of early Millersville shot attempts thanks to a save by Burker and another block from The Rock's back line.
 
Slippery Rock and the Marauders proceeded to trade possession for following seven minutes before The Rock earned their first penalty corner of the game with five minutes remaining in the opening corner.
 
Colliver sent the ensuing entry pass into Hoffman, who in turn fired an attempt from 15 yards out that found its way through heart of the Millersville defense and past goalie Kerstin Koons for the contest's first goal at 10:12.
 
The Rock took their one-goal advantage into the second quarter and while they did go on to earn two more penalty corners that resulted in a pair of Hoffman attempts neither of which found the mark, allowing Millersville to even the game in the 27th minute when Emily Buss snuck a shot just inside the cage by Burker.
 
SRIU tallied two more penalty corners following the Marauder equalizer but registered just a single shot – an attempt by Clymer that was stopped – as the game headed into halftime tied 1-1.
 
The defenses took over in the third quarter with MU withstanding a pair of Rock shots by Stockler and Rude that each sailed wide.
 
The Rock meanwhile thwarted three Marauder penalty corners thanks in no small part to excellent play by Clymer, who cleared away two Millersville corners in near succession, and Burker, who stopped a Morgan Lennon shot in the 45th minute which pushed the contest into the final 15 minutes with the evenly matched teams still deadlocked at 1-1.
 
It did briefly appear as if Slippery Rock found the go-ahead goal with 9:30 left in the third quarter after Hoffman fired off another strike from the top of the circle that slid under Koons' foot and into the back of the cage, but the shot was ultimately waved off.
 
The fourth quarter saw Slippery Rock once again come out as the aggressors by recording two corners and three shots in a 21-second barrage during the 51st minute. However, Hoffman's final attempt of game was blocked and Graci's two shots did not yield a goal either.
 
A stalemate ensued for the following eight minutes before Millersville capitalized on what was just its fifth penalty corner of the afternoon with only 59 seconds remaining in regulation as an initial shot by Lennon was blocked by a Rock defender only for Saige Shine to eventually deflect the loose ball into the cage for what turned out to be the game-winning goal.
 
Slippery Rock continues PSAC competition 5 p.m. Oct. 8 at Frostburg State University. The Rock defeated the Bobcats, 2-1, in a non-conference game to open the season earlier in the year.  




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