DELAWARE, Ohio. (September 29, 2021) – The Denison University field hockey team gave up a penalty stroke goal less than eight minutes in and was never able to find the equalizer despite a furious fourth-quarter comeback attempt as it fell 1-0 in nonconference action at Ohio Wesleyan University.

Midway through the first quarter, Ohio Wesleyan (4-2 overall) had the first shot of the game, which was stopped by Big Red goalkeeper Maren Kraak. However, in the resulting play in front of the cage, the Battling Bishops were award a penalty stroke and took advantage of it.

Kraak added two more saves in the second quarter, and then Denison (3-4) threatened at the end of the third quarter as AC Veith had a shot saved by the Ohio Wesleyan goalkeeper, Meg McCarthy.

After being held to only one shot in the first half and then two in the third quarter, Denison turned up the pressure and exploded for nine shot attempts in the fourth quarter, but was still unable to put one home.

The Big Red tallied six penalty corners and six shots, four of which needed saving by McCarthy, all in the final 63 seconds of the game.

In the end, the two teams tied 12-12 in total shots and 8-8 in shots on goal while the Big Red led 15-6 on penalty corners, and had 10 penalty corners in the final seven-plus minutes of action.

Kraak played all 60 minutes and made seven saves to try and keep her team in it while for Ohio Wesleyan, McCarthy also went the distance and made one more save (8) than Kraak, which turned out to be the difference in the game.

Maya Tumiwa led the Big Red with four total shots, three of which were on goal, while Veith had three shots and Madeleine Hunt and Ana Ortiz-DeRosa both had two.

The Big Red will have a chance to take on Ohio Wesleyan one more time this season, but this time with conference stakes on the line on October 16 in Granville, Ohio. Back in the 2019 season, Denison fell 1-0 at home against OWU before coming back to win 2-0 in Delaware, Ohio, in conference action.

Meanwhile, Denison's next matchup this season will be their second game this year against a top-20 nationally-ranked team as the Big Red welcome No. 19 the University of Lynchburg to Deeds Field-Piper Stadium for Big Red Weekend on Saturday, October 2, at 11 a.m. Back on September 12 of this year, Denison came up short at home against No. 17 Centre College by a score of 3-2 in what was their first game against a nationally-ranked opponent.