CUA falls to Juniata 4-2 in Landmark Conference action
WASHINGTON – Down 3-0 to Juniata on Saturday the CUA field
hockey team rallied to pull within 3-2 early in the second half,
but that was as close as the Cardinals would get as they fell to
the Eagles 4-2 inside Cardinal Stadium. With the loss CUA
falls to 9-2 overall and 1-2 in the Landmark Conference.
CUA was credited with nine shots on the afternoon, while the
Eagles were credited with eight. The Cardinals held a decided
advantage in penalty corners as they were awarded 17 to Juniata's
11.
In goal for CUA Megan Communale sent back one shot and Eagles
goalkeeper Moira Nugent stopped three shots.
"We just did not come out ready to play today," Cardinals head
coach Gia Cillizza said afterwards. "We did not play our best
hockey in the first half and it cost us." She continued, "You
can't come out the way we did and expect to win against a good team
like Juniata. When we did decide to finally start playing, it
was too late, and the deficit was too much to overcome."
She added, "I thought Abby Banholzer did a
great job off the bench for us. She came in and really
provided us with a nice spark, which was great to see."
The Eagles jumped out to a quick 1-0 lead when Kim Amrod scored
off an assist from Paula Pierce just 2:54 into the contest.
CUA got its first shot off 7:32 into the contest, which came from
Meredith
Chandler, but her attempt was blocked. Chandler's second
shot, two minutes later, went wide and the score remained 1-0.
With 16 minutes gone in the opening half the Eagles made it a 2-0
game when Meghan McGlone took a feed from Jaqueline Hoozemans and
found the back of the cage.
Soon after the score, Kendall
Petschauer took a shot for CUA, but Nugent made the
save.
At the 28 minute mark Juniata went up by three scores off a Molly
Synder goal, which came following a penalty corner. Only 41
seconds later however, CUA cut into the Eagles lead when Catherine
Mirsky was awarded a penalty stroke and beat Nugent to make it a
3-1 game.
With under two to play in the half the Cardinals were awarded a
penalty corner, but Tracey Scanlon's
shot was blocked, and soon after the teams retired for halftime
with CUA trailing 3-1.
The Cardinals came out aggressive in the second half as Mary
Swarthout got things started just 35 seconds in with a shot.
Her attempt went wide, but CUA was then awarded three straight
penalty corners. Off the final corner, Caroline Reilly got
free for a shot, but her attempt was saved.
At the 43:41 mark Chandler got the CUA crowd into it when she
scored off a Swarthout assist and the Cardinals were down just one
at 3-2.
CUA continued to look for the equalizer as Scanlon took a shot at
the 51:42 mark but Nugent made the save. The Cardinals
remained on the attack however, and were awarded four penalty
corners in a row, but they were unable to cash in on their
chances.
As the game neared the final minutes, Caroline Phillips all but
sealed things for the Eagles with her score off a penalty corner at
the 67:12 mark. Amrod assisted on the goal as Juniata ran its
conference record to 4-0.
The Cardinals remain at home and will return to action on Tuesday,
October 12 when they play host to St. Mary's inside Cardinal
Stadium. Game time is set for 6:00 and all of the action will
be shown live on cuacardinals.com.
