Lauren Abbott

WOOSTER, Ohio – The College of Wooster field hockey team endured a rare second-straight shutout, as Denison University took the North Coast Athletic Conference foes' initial meeting of the year 4-0 on Andrew Turf Field at John P. Papp Stadium Wednesday afternoon.

It marked the first time Wooster has been held scoreless back-to-back since the beginning of the 2011 season – a stretch of 63 games.

The Fighting Scots (4-5, 2-3 NCAC), who have been without their leading scorer from a year ago for four games now, had two good scoring opportunities in the first three minutes, but well-placed crosses to an open player on the far post were not converted.

Overall, the first half was closely contested, with the exception of a 26-second outburst by freshman Tori Rapillo of Denison (4-3, 4-1 NCAC). She scored twice in the 19th minute, and then made it a hat trick just 46 seconds into the second half while pushing the margin to three.

Lauren Abbott nearly put Wooster on the scoreboard in the second, as the first-year made a nice run into the circle, beating a defender and then sliding a shot just wide to the right of the cage.

Defensively, the Scots' Carrie Mount registered double-digit saves for the second game in a row, this time stopping 11 Big Red shots.

Wooster aims to bounce back when it kicks off Homecoming Saturday with a visit from Oberlin College (1-4, 1-3 NCAC) at 11 a.m.