After a dominating win on Saturday at Eastern Mennonite, Centre Field Hockey stayed in Virginia to take on Randolph-Macon on Sunday. The Colonels fell behind early, rallied late, but could not complete the comeback from a 3-goal deficit as they fell 3-2.
Eliza Hensley started in goal for Centre and was under attack from the start. She made 4 saves in the first 7:09 of the opening quarter. Nineteen seconds later, Randolph-Macon was able to slip a shot by Hensley to take an early 1-0 lead. Hensley bounced back to make 2 more saves just 17 seconds later. Randolph-Macon later added a second goal in the 11th minute of the first quarter to take a 2-0 lead after 1, despite Hensley tallying an impressive 9 saves in the quarter. She tallied 2 more saves in the 2nd quarter as Randolph-Macon took a commanding 2-0 lead to halftime. Centre failed to record a single shot attempt in the half.
The Colonels made adjustments at the half and garnered a chance early as
Philine Bolt got a shot on goal off a Centre's first penalty corner. The shot was turned away but at least gave the Colonels some life.
Emily Ritchie took two more penalty corners in the 35th minute.
In the 4th, Randolph-Macon added a 3rd goal to its lead less than 3 minutes in. Centre came right back at the 49:12 mark as
Olivia Vonderheide continued her strong run of late with a goal off a
Claire Martin pass to get the Colonels on the board. The confidence grew as
Hannah Miller and
Tori Drepaul combined for 3 shots on goal in just 1:24. The work paid off with 7:10 to play as
Philine Bolt whipped a shot into the goal off a pass from Drepaul to cut the deficit to 3-2. Centre pressed for the chance to send the game to overtime, but it never materialized as the Randolph-Macon defense tightened up and held on for the win.
Despite the early deficit,
Eliza Hensley kept Centre afloat as the game wore on, finishing the day with 13 saves.
Olivia Vonderheide continued her strong play with another goal, giving her 5 goals and 4 assists and the last 4 games.
The Colonels now take an extended break in preparation for CFHC play, starting on Saturday, October 11th, when the team travels north to take on Concordia Wisconsin with a 10:00am ET scheduled start.
