The No. 4-ranked Shippensburg University field hockey team continued its good season, beating Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) opponent Slippery Rock University 3–0 on a rainy Saturday afternoon in Shippensburg.
The Raiders’ offense dominated the game throughout, but Slippery Rock goalie Haley Plitt had all the answers in the first half. Shippensburg totaled 17 shots during the first half, but none of them got past Plitt.
The game’s opening goal came in the 38th minute from SU sophomore Sarah Womer. It was the first goal of her collegiate career, and it came on a beautiful reverse shot off of a rebound attempt.
The Raiders later added on two goals to complete their victory, both coming from sophomore Emily Stauffer. Her first goal of the game came in the 52nd minute on a backhand shot to the right corner of the net. Stauffer then put in a rebound attempt in the final minute of the game to cement SU’s victory.
The Raiders’ offense dominated Slippery Rock all game, but it could not find any success until the second half. They outshot Slippery Rock 27–5 overall and 17–4 in shots on goal. Stauffer had one of the best games of her career thus far, totaling two goals and seven shots, with three of those shots being on goal. Some other top performers for the Raiders were Jazmin Petrantonio (eight shots, six shots on goal) and Jenna Sluymer (five shots, four shots on goal).
Redshirt-senior Ally Mooney had a good game in net for SU, stopping all four shots that came her way. The shutout was the 20th of her career.
Saturday’s game was a special one for the Raiders, as the 2013 national championship team was honored at halftime. That team brought SU its first ever NCAA Division II National Championship in the sport.
The Raiders (11-3, 5-2 PSAC) currently sit in third place in the PSAC after Saturday’s win over Slippery Rock. It does not seem likely that the team will be able to pass second place West Chester University (13-2, 7-1 PSAC), who beat the Raiders 4-2 earlier this month.
With three games remaining this season (all three are PSAC matchups against teams at the bottom of the standings), the Raiders’ goal should be to hold down the third seed in the conference.
SU next takes on the winless Seton Hill University Griffins (0-14, 0-7 PSAC) in a PSAC matchup tomorrow at 4 p.m. in Seton Hill.
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