NEWBERRY, S.C.—The old adage that the best defense is a good offense was certainly proven to be true in Bellarmine University's convincing 5-1 victory at Newberry College in Eastern College Athletic Conference field hockey action today at Setzler Field.
Bellarmine kept the offensive pressure on the Wolves throughout the contest, firing 22 shots on the day—14 of those being on target. With the Knights possessing the ball so much of the time, Newberry got off just four shots, scoring on the only one of the four that was on target. That shot came after an attempted clearing pass by Bellarmine went awry.
The Knights got a pair of goals from
Kathryn Schneidtmiller with the remaining scores by
Hannah Doll,
Lillie Nitzken and
Kelsey O'Bryan.
Alex Ginter contributed two assists on the day with Schneidtmiller and Doll each adding one.
"We have been working at practice on following our shots, getting in the appropriate positions, and finishing in the circle," said Bellarmine Coach
Mark Blankenbaker, "and I think we showed tenacity and grit in the circle today, even though it wasn't perfect."
Blankenbaker added that utilizing Bellarmine's deep bench helped keep the Knights fresh. "Newberry had some speed and never gave up. It was hot and humid so it was nice having some fresh legs to display our depth," he said.
With the win, Bellarmine improves to 9-6 on the season and finishes the ECAC with a 2-4 mark. The Wolves move to 3-12, 0-6 ECAC.
Bellarmine now moves on to close the regular season with "senior night" on Tuesday. The Knights will host Centre in a 7 p.m. contest.
BOX SCORE (HTM)ECAC TOURNAMENT:
The Knights will serve as hosts of the upcoming ECAC postseason tournament with action coming on Nov. 6 and 8 at Trager Stadium on the campus of the University of Louisville. Bellarmine will be the No. 3 seed and will face either Limestone or Lindenwood, who tied for the regular season ECAC title. The tiebreaker will come down to record against common opponents and Limestone still has two more games that could break the tie.
Coach Blankenbaker likes the way his team is playing heading into conference play. "As we prepare for the ECAC Tournament, we are showing improvement across the field," he said.
