SHIPPENSBURG, Pa. - The Slippery Rock University field hockey team lost on the road Friday to No. 2 Shippensburg University, 4-0, at the Robb Sports Complex in Shippensburg, Pennsylvania.
Following Friday's result, Slippery Rock's record moves to 3-2 overall while the nationally ranked Raiders remain undefeated at 6-0.
Facing constant pressure for the majority of the day, sophomore goalkeeper
Emily Newton made 13 saves while playing all 60 minutes.
Haylie Sucharski added a defensive save as well.
Offensively,
Lucy Hutchinson and
Riley Cloude totaled two shots apiece with Hutchinson logging one shot on goal.
Madison Shomo and
Grace Williams also contributed one attempt apiece.
As was the case for the entirety of the first half, The Rock's defensive strategy did well to frustrate a high-powered Shippensburg offense early on, leading to a scoreless first quarter in which Slippery Rock cleared four corners and thwarted four shot attempts.
The Raiders finally broke through SRU's defense just over a minute into the second quarter off a corner when Sierra Crews played a pass into the center of the circle that was re-directed off the stick of Lilly Cantabene and past Newton for the go-ahead goal.
Slippery Rock had three solid scoring opportunities in the first half, beginning on a penalty corner midway through the opening quarter when a pair of attempts by Hutchinson and Williams were blocked.
Coral Piramo made a long run seven minutes into the second quarter, but the would-be breakaway was denied when two defenders were able to chase Piramo down and clear the ball from danger.
With under a minute to play in the first half, Hutchinson fired off a hard shot from the far side of the circle, but Shippensburg goalie Emma Albee was able to make the save to send the game into halftime with SU ahead 1-0.
However, Shippensburg scored two goals in the third quarter and one more in the fourth for an eventual 4-0 home victory.
For the game, the Raiders held advantages over The Rock in total shots (35-6), shots on goal (18-1) and penalty corners (17-2).
Slippery Rock concludes its four-game road trip 4 p.m. Sept. 23 at Frostburg State University.
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