Rock LAX loses tough game against ranked opponent

Published by adviser, Author: Karl Ludwig - Rocket Contributor, Date: April 4, 2018
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The Slippery Rock women’s lacrosse team hosted no. 21 East Stroudsburg University on Saturday for an important PSAC (Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference) matchup. Mihalik-Thompson stadium housed the inter-conference matchup in front of a crowd of 137 fans. The result was not what was hoped for as the Rock suffered a 9-7 defeat at the hands of the Warriors.

The Rock converted on their scoring opportunities early in the first half, taking a 4-0 lead over the Warriors with 18:15 left in the first half. Goals from redshirt senior Jasey Sanders, redshirt junior Tia Torchia, senior attacker Bre Vodde, junior defender Danie Porath and junior midfielder Kelly Muenster gave The Rock a 5-1 advantage at the half.

Coming out of the half, the Warriors and the Rock traded goals until the score was 7-4 in favor of the Rock with 10:30 left in the game. However, the Warriors closed the game with five unanswered goals, taking the lead with 4:27 left in the game before icing the victory with a final goal a little more than two minutes later.

The disappointing result for The Rock could be attributed to a strong relief performance from Warrior’s goalkeeper Tatyana Petteway, who made nine saves on 12 shots in 46:42 minutes of play, and a lackluster second half from the entire Rock team.

A strong first half did not carry over for The Rock who struggled mightily in the second. The Rock struggled to hold possession in the second half, forced into 19 turnovers by the Warriors. After going 13-21 in clearance in the first half, the Rock only executed 4-15 clears in the second half. A 16-9 shot advantage favored the Warriors as well after a 10-10 deadlock in the first half.

East Stroudsburg used a strong second half to take a 26 (20 shots on goal)-19 (16 shots on goal) advantage in shots. Slippery Rock held the advantage in saves with an 11-9 edge. Both teams deadlocked in turnovers with 36 each. The Warriors edged the Rock in groundballs with a 36-35 advantage. The Warriors successfully executed 16 of their 23 clearance attempts while The Rock completed 17 of their 36 attempts. The Rock went 2 of 5 for the free-position shots while the Warriors went 0 for 9.

In a rare occurrence, the Rock had a different player record each of their seven goals. Sanders recorded her 10th, Torchia recorded her 21st, Vodde recorded her 15th, Porath recorded her 5th and Muenster recorded her 11th. Junior midfielder Erin Brown recorded her first of the year while sophomore midfielder Tori Penders recorded her 7th.

Muenster and Porath assisted on two goals each. Senior goalkeeper Emily Bitka recorded a team-high 14 groundballs. Bitka also took the loss in net despite a strong showing with 11 saves on 20 shots.

With the loss, The Rock finishes a tough four-game stretch against nationally ranked PSAC teams with a 1-3 record. Overall, the Rock moves to 5-3 (.625) with a 1-3 (.250) record in PSAC play. The Warriors move to 5-2 (.714) overall with a 4-1 (.800) record in the PSAC.

Slippery Rock will be back in action this Tuesday, April 3rd in a PSAC game against Seton Hill University. The game will be played at Mihalik-Thompson stadium at 2:00 PM.

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