Sept. 4, 2009

Box Score

PHILADELPHIA - The Saint Joseph's field hockey team lost its season opener, falling 4-1 to Virginia Commonwealth in Friday's contest at Buckley Field. The Rams scored two goals in the opening eight minutes to jump out to the early advantage. Hawk junior Hannah Rogers tallied the lone goal for SJU.

Just over two minutes into the contest, Hannah Lyerly sent in a corner for VCU (2-0), which was passed back to her by Rachel Krumm. Lyerly beat Kelly Swanick to the short side to put the Rams up early, 1-0.

Lyerly then earned an assist less than five minutes later when her pass found Marle van Dessel open in front of the cage. Van Dessel slotted the ball into the cage to double the Ram lead.

Shortly after halftime, Saint Joseph's (0-1) began to claw back into the match as Rogers took a long feed from Anne Schreuders and put a shot past VCU keeper Megan Botteri to get the Hawks back within one.

Unfortunately for the Crimson and Gray, Kelsey Scherrer would score twice in the middle of the half to close the scoring. The first goal came as a result of a penalty corner, as Lindsay Jones pushed a pass towards Scherrer, who found the back of the cage for her first tally. Six minutes later, Scherrer took a pass from Chelsea Hill and rifled a laser past Swanick for her second goal of the day.

Swanick finished with three saves for the Hawks, while Botteri turned away nine SJU attempts. Virginia Commonwealth held a slight 11-9 advantage in corners, while SJU outshot the Rams 19-16.

The Hawks will return to action on Sunday afternoon as they welcome the Duke Blue Devils to Buckley Field. Game time is set for 2:00 p.m.