Box Score
VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS FOR MOBILE DEVICES
BRIDGEWATER, Va. – Junior Rachael Loy found teammate Taylor Prillaman and Prillaman deflected a shot into the goal to propel the Bridgewater Eagles field hockey team to a hard-fought 3-2 victory over Randolph-Macon on Wednesday evening.
The victory secures an opening round bye for the Eagles for the upcoming Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC) tournament. The win is also Bridgewater's fifth in a row and the first over the Yellow Jackets since 2011.
Bridgewater got on the scoreboard first in the opening half off of a corner insert. Junior Caroline Fletcher moved free in front of the cage and pulled Randolph-Macon goalie Kelsey Stanley out from between the pipes. Fletcher dished a pass off to Rachael Loy and the junior deflected the ball out of the air and into the cage to put Bridgewater up, 1-0, late in the 19th minute.
The Yellow Jackets responded to Bridgewater's goal less than 10 minutes later. Carrie Jacobs pushed a shot towards the cage and Catherine Pricone found the back of the net out of a scrum in front of the cage to tie the contest up at 1-1 at the intermission.
Bridgewater controlled play over the opening 35 minutes, owning an 11-2 shots advantage.
Out of the halftime break, Bridgewater continued to control play prior to regaining the lead for good. The Eagles fired two shots on frame and Randolph-Macon goalie Shannon McMurray made a pair of saves in the process. Following a Caroline Augsburger shot, Alenka Ferrufino was there and converted the rebound to put Bridgewater up by a 2-1 score at the 41:22 mark of the game.
Bridgewater added an insurance tally with less than 20 minutes to play. Loy dribbled inside the circle and fired a sharp pass to Prillaman. The Magnolia, Delaware native deflected the Loy pass into the cage inside of the opposite post to push the Bridgewater lead to 3-1.
Following the Bridgewater tally, the Yellow Jackets changed the field and took the momentum for the final 17-plus minutes of play. Randolph-Macon cut the deficit in half when Jacobs found the back of the net to trim the score to a 3-2 Bridgewater lead.
Randolph-Macon continued to apply pressure over the remainder of the game as Jacobs fired a pair of reverse chips at the cage, but Amanda Harper was up to the task each time as the Eagles held off the late Yellow Jackets charge to take a 3-2 victory.
Fletcher and Prillaman led the Eagles with four shots each as Bridgewater owned a 19-10 advantage in shots.
Harper made four saves in securing her ninth win of the year.
Jacobs and Pricone each tallied four shots in the loss and Stanley picked up the loss between the pipes.
Bridgewater returns to action on Wednesday when it hosts the semifinal round of the ODAC tournament against the winner of Saturday's matchup between No. 3 seed Shenandoah and No. 6 seed Eastern Mennonite.
