DANVILLE, Ky. (October 1, 2023) – In its second of back-to-back road games on back-to-back days in Kentucky this weekend, the Denison University field hockey team could not hold onto the lead in the final three minutes of regulation and then gave up the game-winning goal in the first minute of double overtime as the Big Red fell 2-1 in nonconference action at Centre College on Sunday.

Denison was outshot 6-0 in the first quarter while Athena Joannou had to make three saves and Tabitha Chandler made a defensive save.

After another save by Joannou in the opening 30 seconds of the second quarter, Denison did not have its first shot of the game until the 22nd minute when Lila Smith's attempt was saved by Centre's Carlie McKenry, and then Nina Casingal's attempt in the 25th minute was also saved by McKenry.

In the final two minutes and 30 seconds of the third quarter, Denison was able to break through as after a penalty corner by Kate Hinshaw, Kristin Kelley sent the ball into the box, and the deflection went back out to Hinshaw, who was able to finish past McKenry to make it 1-0 Big Red.

Cary Mauck's shot just over a minute later hit off the post as Denison nearly made it 2-0, and then in the fourth quarter, Joannou had to make back-to-back saves in the 47th minute to preserve the lead.

Joannou made yet another save in the 49th minute before a blocked shot in the 52nd minute by the Big Red defense, which helped killed four penalty corners for the Colonels in the fourth quarter until the 58th minute when the fifth penalty corner of the period for Centre resulted in a deflection goal on a hard hit from outside the blue circle.

Joannou had to make two more saves in the final minute of regulation as Centre outshot Denison 8-0 in the fourth quarter while Joannou made five saves in the period.

Centre then outshot Denison 7-1 in the first overtime period as Joannou added four more saves to bring her new career-high to 14 total saves.

In the second overtime, however, Denison maintained possession for the first 30 seconds, but a quick attack by the Colonels following a turnover saw Centre take the ball all the way across the field to attack Joannou, who had to come out of the goal and dive to make the initial save. Unfortunately, Joannou was unable to corral the ball as Centre's Claire Martin kept possession and then went around Joannou for the game-winning goal one minute into the second overtime.

For the game, Denison was outshot 26-7 overall and 17-4 on goal.

With its string of six straight wins snapped, Denison falls to 6-3 overall on the season while Centre improves to .500 (5-5).

Next up, Denison will return to conference play by hosting Wittenberg University at 11 a.m. on Saturday, October 7.