Despite staying even on shots, EMU's field hockey women fell short in the important stat of goals, losing 7-2 to Bridgewater College Thursday night in Harrisonburg.  The Royals wilted in the second half after trailing only 2-1 at halftime.

The result leaves Eastern Mennonite in seventh place in the ODAC at 2-5 with just one league game remaining – next Wednesday's season finale at Shenandoah.  The Royals need to beat the third-place Hornets and hope that Roanoke loses both of their remaining ODAC games.  The Maroons, who at 2-4 have the same number of wins as EMU but hold the head-to-head tiebreaker, play at Shenandoah and at Lynchburg to end their season.

The six-team ODAC Tournament starts next week Saturday.

Against the Eagles, the visitors got on the board early, sticking in a rebound in the eighth minute.  Eight minutes later they scored again for a 2-0 lead.

Eastern Mennonite finally got going in the 28th, with Melissa Cox (Mountville, Pa./Hempfield) scoring on a give-and-go from Jenessa Derstine (Harleysville, Pa./Christopher Dock) to make it 2-1.

The score stayed that way until six minutes into the second stanza.  BC scored twice in three minutes to go up 4-1, but the Royals answered two minutes later.  Emily Augsburger (Lancaster, Pa./Lancaster Mennonite) took a pass from Derstine off a corner and pounded a long shot into the cage off the right post to make it 4-2.  But the Eagles came right back just over a minute later with another tally.

As the dust settled on a seven-minute span which saw four balls hit the cage, Bridgewater had built the cushion to 5-2.  BC added two more goals later on to produce the final margin.

Each team charted 19 shots, with the Eagles holding a slight 15-11 edge in shots on goal.  The visitors also had a small advantage in corners, 8-7.

Cox had a team best seven shots, including six on goal.  Derstine had six attempts with two being on target.  She also moved into a tie atop the ODAC leaderboard with eight assists on the season.

Goalie Hannah Daley (Lothian, Md./Southern) made eight saves.

Eastern Mennonite has one more home game this season, welcoming non-conference Ferrum College Saturday at 1:00pm.