SALEM, VA--The Roanoke College field hockey team dug itself a 2-0 first half hole, but rebounded to score the final three goals and defeat Washington & Lee 3-2 on Friday afternoon in Salem, VA. The Maroons, who have won four of the five all-time meetings in this series, improve to 6-4 overall and 2-1 in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference. Washington & Lee, which has a four-game winning streak snapped, falls to 4-5 overall on the year and 3-2 in the ODAC.
Just over 11 minutes into the contest, the Generals took a 1-0 lead as Kitt Murphy redirected a Jane Beall shot into the cage, past Roanoke keeper
Lindsey Paz (Mountain Lakes, NJ/Mountain Lakes). Just about 15 minutes later, Washington & Lee went up by two goals. Beall took a shot off of a W&L penalty corner and after the ball got past all of the Roanoke defenders, Kendell Korte swatted the ball into the goal for the second goal.
The Maroons, however, would take control of the scoreboard from there, scoring the final three goals. The first came just 24 seconds following W&L's second goal. Freshman
Leeanne Clark (South Burlington, VT/South Burlington) was able to cut the General lead in half with a one-time shot on a
Kaylin Leavitt (Arlington, VA/Yorktown) crossing pass.
The game went into half with W&L up 2-1, but the Maroons scored the only two goals of the second half. Clark scored her second goal of the game to even the score at two. Her second goal was similar to the first, but this time she redirected a pass, from outside the circle, from
Melanie Bartnek (Springfield, VA/Annandale). Ten minutes after the Clark score, and with 17:06 left in the game,
Liz Hudson (Culpeper, VA/Culpeper) scored the game winner. After
Margaux Stunzi (Marblehead, MA/Marblehead) sent a shot towards the cage, Hudson made contact with the ball, just below knee level, and changed the flight of the ball to go over the W&L keeper's head and into the upper right side of the cage.
The Maroons held off the Generals the rest of the way, thanks in large part to freshman
Samantha Beard (Myersville, MD/Middletown), who made her first collegiate defensive save in the second half.
The Maroons return to action on Sunday in Washington, DC as they travel to the campus of the Catholic University of America to play the Cardinals in an 11:00 contest. That is the first of six straight road games for RC, which returns home on October 22nd against Lynchburg College.
Roanoke vs. Washington & Lee Box Score
