NEWBERRY, S.C. – The Newberry College field hockey team (9-5, 6-3 South Atlantic Conference) defeated the Lincoln Memorial Railsplitters 4-1 Saturday afternoon.
Prior to Saturday's contest, Newberry field hockey honored their three seniors:
Fiorella Berenguel (Lima, Peru),
Carly Ellis (Virginia Beach, Va.), and
Marissa Plumer (Chester, Md.) for their contributions to the Newberry field hockey program.
The Wolves controlled the ball for most of the first quarter and did not allow the Railsplitters to take a shot in the first 15 minutes of play. One of the Wolves own seven shots of the opening quarter found the back of the cage when sophomore midfielder
Stembile Chikoore (Harare, Zimbabwe) scored off of an assist from sophomore midfielder
Tamsin Bangert (Johannesburg, Z.A.). The Wolves had several shot opportunities after the first goal, but were unable to score again the opening frame and took their one-goal lead into the second quarter.
Less than one minute later, the Wolves doubled their lead when junior forward
Lily Drury (Ballarat, Australia) connected with junior forward
Bella Focht (New Kent, Va.) for the Wolves second goal of the afternoon.
The Railsplitters stepped up their defensive efforts, holding the Wolves to three shots for the remainder of the second quarter but the Wolves defense held stronger, allowing no shot attempts from Lincoln Memorial in the first half. Newberry took their two-goal lead to halftime.
Coming out of halftime, the Wolves scored two goals to double their lead again. The first of the third-quarter goals was again Chikoore scoring off of an assist from Bangert. The second goal was scored by freshman midfielder
Lieke Varenkamp (Middelburg, Netherlands) who was assisted by Drury who picked up her second assist of the day.
The teams would combine for four shots the rest of the quarter, including three for Newberry, but none of the shots found the back of the cage and the Wolves entered the fourth quarter with a four-goal lead.
In the 48th minute, Lincoln Memorial scored their first and only goal of the afternoon, cutting the Newberry lead to three goals.
The Wolves defense stepped up the rest of the way and allowed the Railsplitters to take no shots the rest of the game and secured the Wolves victory.
The Wolves return to the field on Tuesday, Nov. 1, as they head to Spartanburg, S.C. for a rematch with the Converse Valkyries. The game is scheduled to start at 7 p.m.
