GRANVILLE, Ohio (September 14, 2022) – The Denison University field hockey team got back into the win column and improved to 2-0 at home with a 4-1 win in nonconference action over Earlham College on Wednesday evening inside Deeds Field-Piper Stadium.

In 2021, Denison fell 1-0 at home to Earlham in a shootout during the regular season before bouncing back to win 2-1 in another shootout at Earlham during the semifinals of the North Coast Athletic Conference Tournament. In that meeting, Earlham was making its first NCAC Tournament appearance after securing the best record in program history during the regular season. This year, however, Earlham is now off to an 0-5 start while Denison got back to .500 at 2-2 overall.

This time around, the Big Red came out as the aggressors to start the game, firing three shots in the third minute alone that were all saved by Earlham's goalkeeper Rachel Alma.

In all, Denison had seven shot attempts in the first quarter, six of which were saved by Alma.

Just two minutes into the second quarter, a penalty corner taken by Madeleine Hunt led to a Denison goal off a deflection by Helen Breen. However, after the seventh save of the first half by Alma less than 30 seconds after the first goal, Earlham got on the board a minute and a half later with a deflection goal of its own off a penalty corner.

Fortunately, Denison answered right back as less than two minutes later, Kristin Kelley ran down almost the whole field and found Abigail Hano in the middle of the box for the goal to make it 2-1 Big Red.

Denison had six more shots and seven penalty corners over the final eight and a half minutes of the second quarter, but the Quakers were able to keep it a one-goal game.

In all for the first half, Denison outshot Earlham 16-2 overall and 10-2 on goal, and had 11 penalty corners to one for Earlham, but the eight saves by Alma were keeping the Quakers in the game to that point.

Just over a minute and a half into the third quarter, Kelley was again causing havoc in the box and Denison was awarded a penalty stroke, and it was converted by Grace Lock to the top left of the goal to make the score 3-1.

The first shot of the fourth quarter went to Earlham off a penalty corner, but a strong shot from the top of the box was saved by Athena Joannou.

Denison's final goal of the game came in the 53rd minute when Nina Casingal passed it to Kate Hinshaw, who put the ball toward the cage for the deflection goal by Hunt.

The Big Red were able to play all 17 players in this one as Kelley and Hunt both finished with five total shots and three shots on goal while Casingal put three of her four shots on goal. Cary Mauck, Hano and Breen each added three shots as in all, 10 different players had at least one shot attempt for Denison.

Denison will now hit the road for back-to-back nonconference meetings against a pair of NCAC opponents, beginning with the College of Wooster at 11 a.m. on Saturday, September 17, and followed by Kenyon College at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, September 20.