The No. 2 Shippensburg University field hockey team could not get past No. 5 Millersville on Wednesday night, dropping a 4-1 decision to the host Marauders on a dewy night at the Biemesderfer.
How it happened
Shippensburg (12-2, 5-2) managed 17 penalty corners and fired nine shots on goal but could only find the back of the cage once – a second-quarter strike on a corner by freshman Agus Garibaldi (Recoleta, Argentina/Colegio San Agustin) off an assist from senior Merel Hoekstra (Wassenaar, The Netherlands/Rijnlands Lyceum Wassenaar).
Millersville (13-3, 5-2) recorded 10 corners of its own and converted on three of them – including twice in the first quarter. Eight different Marauders contributed to the four MU goals and four MU assists, while goalkeeper Kerstin Koons made nine saves. SU has yielded eight goals in its two losses this season, six of which have been scored off opposing penalty corners.
Shippensburg kept trying to chip away at its deficit in the second half and consistently produced offensive opportunities down the stretch. Trailing 3-1 with nine minutes remaining, the Raiders almost halved their deficit on a corner, as a hard shot by sophomore Tess Jedeloo (Amsterdam, The Netherlands/Hervormd Lyceum Zuid) rang clean off the left post.
Sophomore Lindsay Tripodo (Gibbsboro, N.J./Eastern Regional) made four saves, including three in the second half.
The loss for the Raiders clinched the PSAC No. 1 seed for Kutztown, as the Golden Bears can finish no worse than 7-2 in league play and hold the head-to-head tiebreaker over all of the other teams currently with two losses (SU, MU, ESU).
Wednesday marked the start of a pivotal late-season stretch for the Raiders that features three games against ranked opponents in a six-day span.
On Saturday, Shippensburg will host No. 10 IUP at 1 p.m. for Senior Day at Robb Sports Complex. Paige Bond (Carlisle, Pa./Boiling Springs), Hoekstra and Maura Mears (Salisbury, Md./Parkside) will be honored in a pre-match ceremony.
Up next
On Monday, SU will host No. 8 Converse at 11 a.m. for a match that was re-scheduled from September. The Valkyries are 13-1 entering the weekend.
