DALLAS, Pa. – The Haverford College field hockey team fell to homestanding Misericordia by a final tally of 1-0 on Wednesday evening, despite holding an 11 to five advantage in shots and a 21 to 10 advantage in penalty corners on the night. With the narrow loss, the Fords are now 6-3 on the season, while Misericordia is now 2-7 on the year as both teams took a midweek excursion from conference play.
Haverford put the early pressure on the Cougars, dominating possession in its attacking third in the opening stanza. The Fords earned 10 corners and took seven shots in the first half, with Roxy Vassighi firing a shot on goal in the 25th minute and Carolin Schmidt rifling a shot on frame in the 29th minute as the tempo and the opportunities belonged almost exclusively to the visitors.
Misericordia was able to take some momentum into the second half, earning a pair of penalty corners to end the first half, but the Cougars were held without a shot as the Fords posted another staunch defensive effort on the road to begin the contest.
After starting the second half with two fruitless corners, Misericordia took advantage on a corner try in the 41st minute. Kailey Vogl inserted the attempt and the ball found the stick of Colby Eldridge. Eldridge rocketed a shot towards goalkeeper Danielle Rette, who saved the initial shot attempt. The ball ricocheted off the pads of Rette and back into the waiting stick of Eldridge, who was able to hammer the rebound home for a 1-0 lead for the hosts.
The Fords recorded corner after corner attempt in the second half, with Elena Veale just narrowly missing the equalizer in the 49th minute as her shot attempt hit the post. Haverford called for timeout in the 57th minute hoping to set up a strategy to tie the score, but goalkeeper Katelyn Campbell was able to turn away a shot from Vassighi in the 61st minute and withstood late pressure from the Fords, who took a total of 11 penalty corner opportunities in the second half.
Campbell finished with four saves in a valiant 70 minutes in the cage. Rette largely matched the effort, with three saves in her 70 minutes of work. Each team had just four shots on goal each in the defensive-minded battle. Vassighi and Veale led the way for Haverford with four total shots while Vassighi had three on frame. Eldridge had four of the five total shots for the Cougars.
Haverford now returns to the Centennial Conference schedule with a home matchup against Johns Hopkins at Swan Field at noon on Saturday, September 30. Haverford has won two straight against the Blue Jays dating back to the 2015 campaign and four straight in the series at Swan Field. Johns Hopkins also played a non-conference game on Wednesday, dropping a 3-1 decision to York (Pa.).