Sydney Schuster

Rose Taylor

The College of Wooster field hockey team secured a second-place finish and the No. 2 seed for next week's North Coast Athletic Conference Tournament with a 2-1 win over host Kenyon College on Thursday afternoon at McBride Field in Gambier, Ohio.

Wooster (13-5, 9-4 NCAC) took matters into its own hands with the win, as Kenyon (9-6, 8-5 NCAC) entered the day tied for second-place in the conference standings. Today's win, coupled with the Fighting Scots' 3-2 shootout victory over the Ladies back on Sept. 29 secured a home game for the Black and Gold for the NCAC Tournament semifinals on Wednesday, Oct. 31, as Wooster wins the tiebreaker should the two teams be tied again in the standings after play on Saturday. Full seeding and game times for the four-team tournament will be released by the conference office on Saturday.

Kenyon struck first in the sixth minute when Tara Shetty sprung free from Wooster's defense, dribbled around sophomore 'keeper Katie Shideler and deposited her sixth goal of the season into the empty cage.

Sophomore Sydney Schuster answered with her game-tying goal coming with 4:30 remaining in the opening half. Wooster quickly made its way up the field after a Kenyon corner, and a driving Schuster darted past three defenders before beating Kenyon 'keeper Suzy Deems on the left post.

Schuster doubled up in the scoring column 87 ticks into the second half when a deflected ball fell in her path, and the sophomore guided it into the right corner to make it 2-1. With the goal, Schuster climbed into the program's single-season top-10 list, and she's now tied for the conference lead this season at 19.

Kenyon controlled possession for most of the second half, and ramped up the intensity even more in the final 2:48 by emptying the cage. The Ladies had two penalty corners after inserting a kicking back, but both Kenyon shot attempts were blocked on their way to the cage, and Wooster was able to whisk a loose ball out of bounds at the end of regulation.

Thanks to standout defensive efforts on both ends of the field, shot attempts came at a premium during the game. Kenyon's nine shots three-bettered Wooster's haul for the game, and the Ladies finished with a slight 6-5 edge on penalty corners.

Deems and Shideler finished with two saves each.

Noteworthy, Wooster's second-place conference finish is the program's highest since the Scots were second in 2010.

Wooster wraps up the regular season with an 11 a.m. clash with Oberlin College (1-16, 0-13) on Saturday, Oct. 27 at John P. Papp Stadium.