XML Box Score by Phil Naegely, GoMessiah.com reporter
Salisbury, MD – No. 7 Messiah College took on No. 5 Salisbury University today and fell 3-0 to the home side. Messiah was out-shot 15-10, but had the penalty corner advantage 7-6. Two quality field hockey squads battled, but in the end Salisbury came out on top.
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In the early going, Messiah had the upper hand and pressured Salisbury, but was not able to get anything past the goalkeeper Rachel Clewer, who had six saves on the day. Off the penalty corner,
Brooke Sands' shot at the 1:19 mark was blocked.
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On another penalty corner opportunity about seven minutes later and in a 16 second span, Messiah took four shots but couldn't elude Salisbury's defense or Clewer. Those four shots was the best opportunity Messiah had at finding the cage and taking the lead.
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However, the game's momentum would quickly shift in Salisbury's favor. On only their second shot of the game, Summer Washburn deflected a shot from the left side into the cage at the 18:10 mark. From that point until the intermission, Salisbury out-shot Messiah 6-0, and
Molly Gebrosky came up big under fire and kept Messiah in the game.
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Unlike to the start of the first half, Messiah couldn't regain the upper hand. The second half would be all Salisbury as they added goals at the 57:42 and 66:00 mark. Yumi Kim put the Seagulls up 2-0 before Emily Voshell put the home side up for good.
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"We played a good first-half of field hockey, but Salisbury played two good halves of hockey," said Coach
Brooke Good looking back on the 3-0 loss to Salisbury, "As a team, we are going to celebrate the things that worked, and fix the things that didn't go that well."
With the result, Messiah suffers their first loss and falls to 3-1 on the season. Salisbury remains undefeated with the win and improves to 4-0 this season. The next game for the Falcons will come this Wednesday in Grantham, Pa., at 7:00 p.m when they take on Haverford College.
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"With two games coming up against quality teams like Haverford and Ursinus," responded Coach Good looking ahead to next week's tough opponents. "We cannot afford to beat ourselves up over Saturday's loss, but need push each other this week in practice."
