Oct. 22, 2009

PHILADELPHIA - The Saint Joseph's field hockey team faces a pair of important matches this weekend as they continue in their pursuit of a berth in the 2009 Atlantic 10 Championship. SJU will play a pair of local road games, traveling to La Salle on Friday afternoon before taking on a resurgent West Chester squad on Sunday.

The Hawks sit at 5-7 overall, but have registered a 2-0 record in conference play. Saint Joseph's began its Atlantic 10 slate with a resounding 4-0 win over city rival Temple before following up with a 3-0 thrashing of #10 Massachusetts in cold and rainy conditions last Friday.

Senior Anne Schreuders leads SJU in goals (11) and points (26). She was recently named the Atlantic 10 Player of Week and ECAC Co-Offensive Player of the Week after her hat trick provided all of the Hawk scoring in the win over UMass. She is now in the top 10 in school history in career goals and assists, and is one point shy of cracking that list for total points as well.

Classmate Kellie Walter is second in scoring but first in assists. She has tallied four goals and seven assists to total 15 points. Her 18 career helpers tie her for seventh in program history, and with 54 points, she is also within striking distance of the career top 10.

Defensively, senior Mary Beaman and junior Casey Fry lead the Hawk backline. Each player has tallied three defensive saves on the season to tie for first in the conference.

In the cage, junior Kelly Swanick has rebounded from a slow start to post three consecutive shutouts, earning Atlantic 10 Co-Player of Week honors on October 12. She has lowered her goals against average for the season to 2.98 and upped her save percentage to .632. She has added four shutouts to the ledger, bringing her career total to eight, good for seventh in SJU history. She is currently riding a 211:12 scoreless streak.

La Salle enters play at 1-2 in the conference after defeating cellar-dweller Saint Louis and falling to West Chester and Richmond. The Explorer attack is led by freshman Rebecca Chylack. She has posted nine goals and three assists for 21 points on the season. She has also added a team-best three defensive saves. Junior Beth Carey leads the team and the conference with nine assists; she has added four goals for a total of 17 points.

Junior Emma Ruth has played every minute in the cage for La Salle, posting 2.14 goals against average and a .745 save percentage. Four of her six wins on the season have been of the shutout variety.

It's a similar story for West Chester as another freshman, Melissa LeNoir, has also tallied nine goals and three assists to pace the Rams. Kristen Foore and Alisha Moran have contributed five goals apiece to rank second on the squad, while Leah Angstadt's four assists are a team best.

In goal, Joelle Zarefoss has seen all the action, posting a 2.57 goals against average coupled with a .745 save percentage. She has recorded a pair of shutouts this year, including one over Saint Louis in conference play.

The Rams have also lost to Richmond this season, but their win over the Explorers has them at 2-1, just a half-game behind Saint Joseph's for second place in the Atlantic 10.

Everyone in the conference is looking up at Richmond, however, as the Spiders have a 3-0 record in A-10 play to hold a half-game advantage over the Hawks. The Spiders have outscored their conference opponents 18-0, including a 12-0 drubbing of Saint Louis.

UR will face its toughest test of the conference season on Friday when it heads to Amherst for a game with the suddenly reeling Massachusetts Minutewomen, currently ranked 12th in the latest NFHCA poll, but sitting in sixth place in the conference after a winless weekend in Philadelphia. UMass fell to both Saint Joseph's and Temple a week ago.

After this weekend's contests, the Hawks will travel to Villanova for their final non-conference tilt of 2009. After that it's back to Buckley Field for their home finale. The top seed in the Atlantic 10 Championship could be on the line as SJU will host Richmond at 1:00 on Friday, October 30. The Hawks will close the season out two days later at Saint Louis.