GAMBIER, Ohio – The Kenyon College field hockey team took advantage of an early Denison University infraction, scored two quick goals and rode the back of sophomore Shannon Hart to a 5-2 victory Thursday afternoon at McBride Field. One of those first two goals was scored by Hart, who tacked on two more tallies in the second half.

At the 24-minute mark of the first half, Denison's Emily Marlatt was slapped with a green card. While she spent her two minutes sitting on the sideline, Hart went to work for Kenyon. With 23:22 showing on the clock, Hart ripped a shot from the right side. As the ball neared the goal line, freshman Abbey Roswell redirected it past Denison goalkeeper Ellen Westfall for the game's first score. Twenty-four seconds later, Hart was in the middle of the Denison circle and cranked out another shot that banged into left side of the Denison cage.

Hart didn't stop there. Entering the second half with a 2-0 lead, Kenyon saw her work the left side of the Denison zone. This time she swiped a back-handed shot over the goal line to give the Ladies a 3-0 lead with roughly 28 minutes to play. Hart used another back-handed shot, this time with some air under it, to put a cap on the scoring with just five minutes left on the clock.

The three goals gave Hart eight on the season, a total that ties senior Maddie Breschi for the team lead. Hart's assist on the Ladies' first goal of the game was her first of the season.     
 
In between Hart's second and third goal, Breschi nearly regained sole possession of the team's top scoring mark. She unleashed a wicked shot off a penalty corner. Westfall made a great save on the shot, but the rebound came back out to senior Christine Bloom, who easily popped in her first goal of the 2015 campaign.         

Denison's two scores both came from Greta Finney and they sandwiched Bloom's goal. After getting behind 3-0, the Big Red never got closer than two goals the rest of the way.      

The game was the first meeting between the North Coast Athletic Conference rivals since last year's conference tournament finale, which Kenyon won 1-0 to advance to the NCAA Division III Tournament.

The win was Kenyon's seventh straight and improved the Ladies' overall record to 9-1 and their conference mark to a perfect 6-0. The loss dropped Denison to 5-4 overall and 4-2 in the NCAC.