The Eastern University field hockey team continued their home stand on Saturday afternoon as they faced off against 12th ranked Rowan University in non-conference action. The Eagles suffered their first loss in five games, falling to the Profs 2-1.

Rowan started off the first half with a bang, scoring within the first six minutes of the game. Nicole Valianti found her way behind the Eagles defense early. Rowan's junior forward missed wide left on her first break away opportunity, but made the most of her second, slicing completely through the Eagles' defense. Valianti faked left, and shot right, depositing the ball in the right side of the cage for 1-0 lead over the hosts.

Eastern was able to pull even nine minutes later. Yvonne Herbster led the offensive charge through the middle of the field. A slight hesitation was all she needed to create space to drill the ball through the Profs' defense and past goalkeeper Lisa Apt. The score remained knotted at one goal apiece for the remainder of the half.

Back and forth play continued for the Eagles and the Profs in the early part of the second half as each team pushed the ball upfield. The Profs Julie Cairone was able to knock in the game winner off of a Rowan penalty corner twelve minutes into the second half. Cairone started the play, pushing the ball to the top of the circle. Lauren Conner lifted the ball over the Eagles' defense to the left side of the cage. Cairone redirected the lift into the left side of the cage just out of the reach of Eastern's keeper, Laura Ressler for a 2-1 lead.

Eastern made several attempts throughout the closing minutes of the second half, but it proved to be too little too late. Rowan was able to hang on to the one goal lead for the 2-1 non-conference victory.

"We just weren't able to do the things that we normally do today," commented Eagles' head coach Camrin Azzarano. "We did not force enough corners and we got out of position too much defensively." The Eagles who are ranked third in the nation in forcing corners were only able to muster nine penalty corners throughout the afternoon.

Defensively, Ressler picked up 15 saves while facing 24 shots. Danielle Danser tacked on a defensive save, her fourth of the season for the Eagles.

Eastern will regroup and look to turn things around on Thursday, October 8. The Eagles face off in another non-conference matchup against Alvernia at 4:00 PM.