Eastern University Field Hockey proved itself worthy of a national ranking for the second time in a week with a 1-0 win against the 12th-ranked College of New Jersey Lions. Prior to the game, the Eagles had moved up in the polls from No. 19 to No. 14 following a 1-0 win against Messiah last Thursday.

Senior Laura Ressler registered her 3rd consecutive shutout. She is quick to defer credit to all the other players on her team.

"Coach always says that the defense starts with the forwards and I completely agree.  It's not just me that has to stop the ball.  The players in front of me help me to see the field and keep the ball out of the net." With  7 saves in the contest, Ressler was a key factor in keeping the score at zero.

On the offensive end of the field, sophomore Brittany Moyer dominated the ball and gave Eastern the lead.  With eight minutes to go in the first half, Moyer received a ball in front of the cage from teammate Shannon Graybill. After a TCNJ foul on the left side of the field, Graybill alertly self-started, dribbling through traffic into the circle. Once in the circle, Graybill found and open Moyer. Moyer settled the pass quickly and blasted the ball into the lower right corner, notching her third goal of the season.

"I was pumped after the goal," Moyer commented. "I knew this was our game and no one was going to take it from us. I did think we would get another one, but you only need 1 goal to win." Both teams battled through the second half but neither team was able to finish opportunities as both goalkeepers played well. The Lions earned six corners,  and the Eagles three.

"We came into this game saying, 'Let's have fun.'  When we have fun, we play our game and that's exactly what we did today," said Ressler.

For Moyer, the game was much more about proving a point: "We just came off a great win over Messiah and today gave us the chance to prove that we deserved it. Our confidence is growing and we know that we're a strong team. But that doesn't mean we are going to back down because we need to keep proving ourselves, one game at a time."

Eastern plays again at 4:00 p.m. on Thursday at home against Widener University.