GRANVILLE, Ohio – After a wild start to Tuesday's North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) field hockey game, things settled down and defenses took control. It wasn't until the fourth quarter that the Kenyon College Ladies tallied their second goal and sealed a 2-1 win over Denison University, the defending conference champion.
It was a heavyweight match-up in what was the first conference contest of the season for both teams. And both teams came out slugging. Kenyon struck first with a goal off a penalty corner just three-and-a-half minutes from the start. The goal was set up by senior
Hannah Sklar and was scored by sophomore
Isabella Meneguzzi. It was Sklar's second assist of the season and Meneguzzi's third goal.
The counterpunch from Denison came just 50 seconds later, as the Big Red also notched their first goal off a penalty corner. Meg Baylis scored that one off an assist from Charlotte Godfrey.
Denison kept charging, firing off seven shots in the first quarter, but Kenyon goalkeeper
Payton Doan and the Ladies defense shut down the Big Red the rest of the way, allowing just three shots over the game's final 45 minutes. Doan ended up making five saves on the day.
The Big Red defense was doing its part, too, holding the Ladies to seven shots throughout the duration. The last of those seven shots, however, proved to be the difference. With a little more than 10 minutes left in the game, Kenyon junior
Olivia O'Connell used some nifty stick work to weave her way around several Denison defenders. Driving up the right side, O'Connell then pushed a pass ahead to
Sarah Metzmaier and the sophomore fired a bullet into the left corner of the Denison cage. The goal was Metzmaier's team-best ninth of the season, as well as her sixth in the Ladies' last four games.
The win extended the Ladies' streak to seven games and improved their records to 8-2 overall and 1-0 in the NCAC. The Kenyon victory also ended Denison's 26-game conference win streak, which was an NCAC record. The loss dropped the Big Red to 7-3 overall and 0-1 in NCAC play.