GAMBIER, Ohio – As the regular season heads toward its final week, the Kenyon College field hockey team improved its spot in the North Coast Athletic Conference standings by chalking up 3-0 win over Earlham College on Sunday afternoon at McBride Field. The win for the Ladies avenged a 2-1 upset at Earlham earlier in the season.

The result improved Kenyon's overall record to 12-5 and its NCAC mark to 10-3. It also temporarily moved Kenyon into second place in the conference standings. DePauw University, which defeated Denison University 2-0 on Sunday, owns first place with an 11-1 conference record. Denison is now 9-3 in the conference, one win behind Kenyon with two games to play. Kenyon has just one game to play and it will be Saturday at Denison.


Against Earlham, Kenyon's first goal came from sophomore Hannah Paterakis and was scored just seven minutes from the start. Paterakis sent in a penalty corner that went to junior Weezie Foster. Foster wound up and took a shot, but it was blocked by an Earlham defender and came back out to junior Kelsey Trulik. Trulik then fired off a shot to the left side, where it was tipped in by Paterakis.

The Ladies later tacked on an insurance goal five minutes into the second half of play. A back-handed shot from Trulik was saved, but not contained, by Earlham goalkeeper Camille van der Vaart. The rebound was corralled by junior Kaitlyn Hutchinson, who worked free of one Earlham defender and then beat van der Vaart to tally her tenth goal of the season.

Kenyon's third score was a fitting one. After celebrating Senior Day during a pre-game ceremony, two of the three Kenyon seniors combined to produce the Ladies' final goal. Julia Richards was working hard in front of the Earlham cage and pushed a short pass to her left where classmate Anna Petek swiped at it and put it over the goal line for her first goal of the season and the third of her career.

Kenyon ended up out-shooting Earlham, 28-6. While van der Vaart racked up 10 saves for the Quakers, junior Sarah Speroff only had to make three saves for the Ladies. The shutout win was Speroff's seventh of the season and the 25th of her career, which ties Karen Thompson '09 for the program record.