Sydney Schuster

A pair of goals within the contest's first 10 minutes proved to be the difference as The College of Wooster field hockey team dropped a key North Coast Athletic Conference contest to host Earlham College which topped the Fighting Scots 3-1 on Saturday morning at Richmond, Ind.

Earlham (5-8, 4-7 NCAC) scored the game's first tally less than a minute into the game. Wooster (8-8, 5-6 NCAC) first-year 'keeper Katie Shideler saved the initial shot by Megan Hut, but the Scots caught an unfortunate break as the rebound went directly back to Hut who finished the second time around :52 into the contest.

Wooster nearly knocked in the equalizer in the sixth minute when junior Erika Womack fired a shot off the penalty corner past Earlham 'keeper Camille van der Vaart, yet prior to crossing over the line, the Quakers' Natalie Blatz slide in for the defensive save.

After a shot by Wooster in the 10th minute, Earlham didn't waste much time as Sofia Salvatore capped the full-field transition with a goal to make it 2-0 and Hut contributed the assist on the tally.

The Scots' defense didn't allow the Quakers to get a shot off the rest of the half, while on the other end, van der Vaart turned aside a pair of shots.

In the second half, van der Vaart's stellar goalkeeping continued as she turned aside a trio of shots, including two off of a penalty corner just over 10 minutes into the stanza. That momentum carried over to the other end of the field as the Quakers' Olivia Honigman knocked in a tally to make it 3-0 in the 53rd minute.

Just a shade over three minutes later, Wooster broke through as first-year Sydney Schuster cleaned up on a rebound for her sixth goal of the season to pull Wooster within two.

Wooster finished the game with a 13-10 advantage in the shots column, and a 9-2 lead in penalty corner opportunities.

Shideler logged three saves in the game while her counterpart van der Vaart had six.

Wooster's Indiana swing continues tomorrow as the Scots take on DePauw University (9-6, 7-4 NCAC) at noon on Sunday.