College Field Hockey
Rider University 3, Villanova University 0
VILLANOVA, PA-You never forget your first.
Junior Ellie LaBar (Oaklyn/Collingswood) scored her first collegiate goal with 23 minutes left on an assist from senior Virginia Egusquiza (Getxo, Spain) to give the Broncs a 3-0 lead in a victory at Villanova Wednesday night.
"It was very exciting," said LaBar, who was an All-State selection at Collingswood High School. "Virginia had the ball at the top of the circle and made a very nice pass to me off to the right. I just let it rip and it went in the top left corner."
"It was a rocket," said assistant coach Dan Hussong. "It was as hard as any shot we've taken this year. It was a beauty."
"It was nice to get a goal from Ellie," said Rider head coach Lori Hussong. "We were kidding her in practice the other day, how she scored a lot in high school and hasn't had one yet at Rider."
"When I was in high school it was different," LaBar said. "When I came here, everyone can score."
The victory was the fourth straight for the Broncs (8-1) their second four-game winning streak of the season. "I don't think we've seen our team play with this much cohesiveness and intensity," Lori Hussong said. "It was good to see. We're getting better each game. This was the first game where I actually felt good with the way we played as a team. We're starting to gel."
"We're starting to play very well together," LaBar said. "We're clicking on the offense and our defense is playing very well."
Rider junior Marlaine Schneider (Feasterville, Pa./Neshaminy) collected a rebound and scored to give the Broncs a 1-0 lead with four minutes left in the first half. The goal was the sixth of the season for Schneider and the 17th of her career.
Junior Gabby Burgo (Collingswood) picked up a loose ball and scored to give Rider a 2-0 lead with just 1:30 left in the first half. The goal was the third of the season for Burgo and the fifth of her career.
"I truly believe that whoever we put on the front line has the ability to score for us," Hussong said. "We have a lot of kids who can score."
The Broncs now have goals from 10 different players.
Rider (8-1) out-shot the host Wildcats (5-5) 26-5. "Even though we dominated the shots total, they (Villanova) were tough," Lori Hussong said. "They were good competition for us."
"That (out-shooting Wildcats by 21) was unexpected," Dan Hussong said. "They are really good, but we played very well tonight. We really connected and played well as a team. It was a really solid performance."
Rider had 12 penalty corners to Villanova's three. The Broncs entered the game ranked first in the nation in penalty corners.
Rider senior goalie Rebecca Lotito (Oceanport/Shore Regional) made two saves for her fifth shutout of the season and the 12th of her career. "They were two BIG saves," Lori Hussong said. "One was a breakaway. The last couple of games she has come up big for us."
"Tito played well," said Dan Hussong, the goalkeeper coach. "When you look at the stat sheet it looks like she didn't have to do much but she had to break up a couple of plays and made a couple of nice stops. She's playing better all the time."
Lotito entered the game sixth in the nation with a 1.04 goals against average. She led the nation last year with a 0.68 g.a.a.
The assist on the first goal by Egusquiza was the 50th of her career and gave her 120 career points, fifth on Rider's all-time scoring list. Her 50 assists is already a Rider record.
Egusquiza entered the game 15th in the nation in points per game (2.38), and now has 20 points in nine games.
The Wildcats entered the game on a three-game winning streak, defeating Radford, Penn and Rutgers.
Rider defeated Villanova 2-1 in overtime last year in Lawrenceville, the first Bronc win over the Wildcats since 1993 (1-0 in overtime). The Wildcats had defeated Rider three straight times before last year, including the 2008 game at Villanova when the host Wildcats won 1-0 on a corner at the end of regulation.
Rider and 'Nova have now met 14 times since the series began in 1981 with the Broncs holding a 7-6-1 advantage.
The Broncs travel to Lehigh Sunday. "It is our last tune-up before conference play," Hussong said. "We're hoping that we will be at our sharpest."
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