LAWRENCEVILLE, N.J. – The Bellarmine University field hockey team looks to build on their first weekend of competition with another road trip beginning Friday, this time to a pair of Northeast Conference opponents.
 
The Knights (1-1) first visit Rider University in suburban Trenton, N.J., to take on the Broncs on Friday at 4 p.m. ET before heading to Hempstead, N.Y., to face Long Island in a neutral site game on Sunday at 12 p.m. ET on the campus of Hofstra University.
 
About Rider
Rider (2-0) is coming off a pair of dominant wins to start its season. The Broncs opened the season with a 5-1 win at Colgate last Friday before shutting out NEC opponent Mercyhurst 7-0 at home in MU's first game as a Division I team. Junior Megan Normile scored four of Rider's 12 goals during the opening weekend. She is one of three players in Division I to have scored four times this season along with Ohio State's Makenna Webster and Richmond's Clara Larripa. Freshman forward Olivia Machiavelli scored a pair of goals and assisted on a score by Normile against Colgate. Six others each tallied single scores over the first weekend. Normile was named NEC Offensive Player of the Week for her performance while Machiavelli took home NEC Rookie of the Week. The Broncs lead Division I with a plus-5.50 scoring margin and rank second in averaging 6.0 goals per game.
 
About Long Island
Long Island (1-1) split a pair opening-weekend road games at Quinnipiac, winning 2-1, and Holy Cross, losing 4-3 in three overtimes. Sophomore midfielder GiGi Ranoldo netted a goal in each game, the first two scores of her career. The Sharks are coming off a 4-11 season, though three of their losses came in double overtime. LIU returns over half of their goal production (eight of 14 goals) from a year ago, including redshirt sophomore forward Juana Laskowski, who tied for the team lead with three.
 
Boisvert on the Opponents
"We have a great opportunity to compete against strong non-conference opponents in Rider and LIU. Since moving to Division I, we've faced Rider twice at neutral venues, and they're a solid team with speed and quick stick work. Last weekend, Rider generated numerous attacking chances and are especially dangerous in the circle. LIU is also a well-structured team that had a strong opening weekend. We're excited to face teams we don't usually get to play and look forward to seeing our progress each week." –Devanny Boisvert
 
Last Week
Bellarmine split two games in St. Louis to open the season, first falling to 2-1 in overtime to Central Michigan before besting host Saint Louis, also 2-1 in overtime. Sophomore Mia Booth scored her first career goal against CMU while freshmen Annie Malloy and Luna Tuncay scored the first goals of their careers against SLU. Tuncay's was the overtime game winner. Fifth-year senior Anna Crump assisted on all three goals.
 
The trip will complete the Knights' four-game road swing to start the season before they play three straight home games beginning with Michigan State on Friday, September 13.
 
For more coverage of Bellarmine athletics, follow the Knights on X, Instagram and Facebook.