Box Score
Washington, D.C. – Abigail Kearney recorded a career-high 13 saves in Catholic field hockey's season opener, but the Cardinals ultimately fell 0-5 to No. 19 TCNJ.
Kearney bested her previous career high from the TCNJ contest a year ago in which she saved 12 of 13 shots faced. Today, she saw 23 shots come towards her cage, 18 of which were on target. The junior now has 141 total career saves and is well on pace to surpass the 150 mark this season.
Despite the final score, the Cardinal defensive came through with timely takeaways and had multiple promising offensive opportunities. Catholic maintained possession on their offensive half for the majority of the first quarter. They were awarded two pental corners in the opening six minutes, but could not get a shot off. The defensive backline of
Emma Shallow, Lauren Keast, and
Liv Ingram cleared the ball extremely well, holding the Lions to just one shot in the opening frame which ended tied at zero.Â
TCNJ gained momentum in the second quarter as their offense picked up steam. Kearney saved five shots within an five-minute span, keeping the Lions off the scoreboard until there was 2:45 remaining in the half. TCNJ's Jadyn Huff got the scoring started when she sent a long slap shot into the back of the cage after Claire Engebreth inserted the ball off a penalty corner. The Lions tacked on one more before the halftime break. This time it was Engebreth who squeaked on through the lower corner off a rebound and deflection by Emma McElroy. Shallow earned the second defensive save of her career in the quarter, sliding in front of the cage to stop Isabel Maher from causing additonal damage.Â
The Lions kept the ball in Cardinal territory for most of the second half, but the Catholic defense only allowed one goal in the third in which they faced five penalty corner sets and eight shots. Huff add two more goals in the final 30 minutes, increasing to TCNJ lead to 4. A last-second tap-in solidified the final score at 0-5.Â
Three Cardinals made their collegiate doubts in today's contest. Freshman
Tess Hake entered at forward while
Molly Romano and
Tessa Pearson saw time in the midfield and defensive end.Â
The Cardinals travel to Randolph-Macon for a their contest on September 4. The non-conference matchup is set to start at 6 p.m.
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