College Field Hockey
Rider University 8, University of Pennsylvania 3
PHILADELPHIA, Pa.--In Philadelphia, playing at Franklin Field. Things do not get more historic than that.
Against the backdrop of the Philadelphia skyline, Rider University met the Penn Quakers for the first time ever in field hockey with the Broncs scoring an 8-3 victory for their third win in a row to start the season.
For Rider (3-0), freshman Sandra Penas (Barcelona, Spain) had a hat trick and added two assists (eight points) with junior Megan Pisani (Plainsboro/W. Windsor Plainsboro-North) and sophomore Marlaine Schneider (Feasterville, Pa./Neshaminy) each scoring twice.
"Sandra is a special player," said head coach Lori Hussong. "She is unselfish and loves to make the pass as much as she likes to shoot. She has a gift for scoring. And both Meg (Pisani) and Marlaine are playing outstanding hockey. They both have great effort and second effort. Their play has been key because you can't just focus on one player. The pressure that our forward line puts on the defense; we have seven players who can put the ball in the net and all are unselfish players.”
"The game was good," Penas said. "Penn scored but we rebounded very quickly to tie the game. We hustled and played hard and I was happy that we got the win."
Penas had a 13 point week (five goals, three assists) after two goals and an assist in Rider's 5-0 win over Colgate on September 4.
"Our forward line was very aggressive," Pisani said. "We kept pressuring Penn's defense and they weren't ready for it. We played very hard and got ourselves a lot of opportunities."
"Our offense is really good," Schneider said. "It is never just one person doing everything. It is the entire team. Everyone contributes."
Rider out-shot the Quakers 26-7 and held a 13-4 penalty corner advantage.
Junior Virginia Egusquiza (Getxo, Spain) had two assists, the third game in a row that Egusquiza has dished out two helpers. Egusquiza set the Rider team record with 17 assists last season.
"Penn paid special attention to Virginia," Hussong said. "She was able to maintain her composure even though she was knocked around a little bit."
The Broncs trailed only 3:15 into the contest when Penn (0-1) scored after three successive shots.
"We got off to such a slow start," Hussong said. "We slept walked through about the first five minutes of the game. They scored and it kind of woke us up. I was happy to see that we battled back and didn't get down when Penn scored. We came right back and scored a ton of goals."
"The early goal by Penn was a reality check for us," said Pisani who now has 25 career goals, all in the last 22 games for the 40 game veteran. "We needed to get things going and play how we play."
"Penn came out on fire and we were not ready for that," said Schneider who now has nine goals and eight assists in 22 games. "We were hanging back and when they scored, we regrouped and scored all of those goals. It was a good road win."
Penas tied the game four minutes later off an assist from senior Kristy Kelly (Bethlehem, Pa./Freedom), the first of two back to back goals by the freshman, 1:43 apart.
Schneider scored her first goal of the day off a corner play from Penas and Egusquiza 13:35 into the game and Pisani hit the back of the cage two minutes later to give Rider a 4-1 lead.
Rider freshman Alicia Govannicci (Springfield, Pa./Cardinal O'Hara), the Northeast Conference Rookie of the Week last week, took a Penas pass and scored her second goal of the season with 7:24 remaining before the half with Egusquiza passing to Pisani who scored four minutes before intermission, making it 6-1 Broncs at the half.
Just 2:35 into the second half, Penas secured the hat trick off a pass from senior Margaret Ecke (New Egypt) with Schneider scoring off a Govannicci pass 12 minutes later for the final Bronc tally.
"'KK' (Kristy Kelly) and Ecke also played a strong game today for the defense," Hussong added. "Even though we scored eight goals, their effort kept us in the game until the offense got going."
The Quakers scored twice in the final four minutes for the final 8-3 margin. "We got sloppy at the end, and didn't pressure the ball," Hussong said. "That hurt us. Penn scored two pretty easy goals and that is something we will be working on in practice before we play Delaware. That effort was uncommon for us. We need to buckle down for 70 minutes."
Freshman goalie Rachel Yacovett (Phoenixville, Pa./Phoenixville Area) made her third start and recorded two saves.
Junior goalie Rebecca Lotito (Oceanport/Shore Regional) played the second half for the second game in a row and made two saves.
The Broncs have scored 17 goals in the first three games of the 2010 season.
Rider last scored eight goals in the 2009 season opener against Lehigh.
The Broncs travel to Delaware to face the Blue Hens on September 9 at 7:00pm.
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