LOUISIVILLE, Ky.—The Bellarmine University field hockey team turned in another solid performance to move to 2-0 on the season after turning back the Mercyhurst Lakers 3-1 today at Owsley B. Frazier Stadium.
After outshooting Seton Hill 18-2 in their season opener yesterday, the Knights nearly duplicated that effort against the Lakers with an 18-5 shot advantage while owning a 14-3 edge in penalty corners.
Despite the similar statistics, Bellarmine Coach
Mark Blankenbaker saw differences in the team's two performances. "We made improvements in the areas we focused on today, which was good to see," he said. "Our penalty corners still need to get better. With that said, we scored twice off corners, so that was good to see."
Bellarmine's
Kelsey O'Bryan opened the game's scoring 6:38 into the contest when she took possession on the left side of the field and simply evaded defenders as she dribbled into the circle and rifled a shot into the cage.
The Knights took a 2-0 lead after
Kathryn Schneidtmiller inserted the ball on a penalty corner then got into position to collect the rebound and score after O'Bryan's shot caromed off the pads of the Laker goalie.
Bellarmine's final goal came early in the second period on a well-executed penalty corner that ended with a great feed from
Elle Lichte and a solid finish by
Aimee Ilgenfritz.
Mercyhurst avoided the shutout with a goal in the 65
th minute when Jessica Brandon converted a pass from Kaitlyn Lechner.
"Yesterday (freshman) Merit (Harris) had a great game, and today the seniors stepped up in a big way," Blankenbaker said. "In addition to Kelsey, Kathryn and Aimee scoring,
Anna O'Toole played an awesome second half in the field."
Blankenbaker added that he thought his team could have had its second straight shutout. "We didn't switch on defense and allowed an open shot with less than five minutes to go. That's something we will learn from and get fixed next time. Overall our defense was solid this weekend."
Mary Ringwald, a team captain and one of the anchors of the Bellarmine defense, said, "I thought our team gave a great effort today. We moved the ball extremely well and took plenty of shots. We could not have asked for a better start to our season—especially at home. I'm looking forward to improving this week at practice in order to come out just as strong next week."
The Knights return to action Friday with a noon match at home against Queens University. They will then come back the following day to host Bloomsburg, again at noon.
BOX SCORE (HTM)
