Slippery Rock University faced off against No. 2 Shippensburg University at their Pink Out field hockey game to support Breast Cancer Awareness Month. The Rock fell 0-3 in the closely-contested match up Wednesday night at Mihalik-Thompson Stadium.
Shippensburg opened the game with a bang, allowing zero shots by Slippery Rock. The Raiders put up five shots, the last one being a goal to end the period.
The goal was scored by Annika Madeja, her second of the season.
The force from Shippensburg did not stop there. Within the first two minutes of the second period, they scored another goal, this time by sophomore Elaina Fragassi, making her seventh goal of the season.
Other than the goal to open the second period, the Raiders would go on to put up two more shots, while the White and Green put up their first shot of the game.
Shippensburg went into halftime leading SRU 2-0.
The Raiders opened the third period offensively heavy with a shot in a little over two minutes into the period. They would then go on to put up seven more shots, all saved by the White and Green defense.
SRU’s goalie Lea Riegling showed off her range by blocking six of those goals.
Shippensburg came out hard in the fourth period, putting up two shots less than a minute apart, but that didn’t stop Riegling from making two massive blocks.
Both teams had a hard-fought defensive in the final period, until Fragassi made her second goal of the night to put Shippensburg up 3-0 in the last two minutes of the game. SRU put up one final shot in the last minute of the game before the final whistle blew.
Lucy Hutchinson led the way for the White and Green in shots with two. Riegling tallied 11 saves by the time the clock hit triple zeroes.
With the loss, The Rock dropped to 5-9 overall and 1-6 in PSAC (Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference) play. Coming off a game against No. 1 Kutztown University, SRU will face another ranked opponent next week as they round out their schedule in the stacked PSAC.
Slippery Rock will return to PSAC action against No. 6 West Chester University at home this upcoming Saturday.
