In an important match, the Lady Royals landed an early knockout blow. The field hockey women caged three goals in the first 28 minutes and held on for a 3-1 win at Sweet Briar Saturday afternoon. The victory put EMU back into the winning column and in the middle the five-team pack leading the ODAC.

Mandy Stowers (Powhatan, Va./Powhatan) returned from a three-game injury absence and jump-started the offense, scoring her second goal of the season less than eight minutes into the contest.

Ten minutes later, Linda Cimini (Cape May, NJ/Middle Township) knocked in a goal with an assist from Adriana Santiago (Souderton, Pa./Christopher Dock). After another ten minutes, Santiago made it 3-0 with an assist from Carol Brinkley (Chester, Va./Thomas Dale).

The Vixen got a score late in the half, putting in a penalty stroke in the 31st minute.

After holding the 3-1 lead at halftime, the Lady Royals kept pushing in the second. They outshot Sweet Briar 10-2 in the final 35 minutes, but neither team scored again as EMU took the win.

Eastern Mennonite held a solid 24-3 edge in shots, including 19-2 in shots on goal. The women also had a 17-3 lead in corners.

With the win, the Lady Royals move to 4-2 in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference. EMU has one remaining ODAC game, the season finale at home against 5-0 Lynchburg. Randolph-Macon and Washington & Lee are both 4-1, with Bridgewater a half game behind the Lady Royals at 3-2.

The women will take their 8-6 record out of the conference next week, playing at St. Mary's (Md.) on Tuesday and hosting Christopher Newport on Saturday.