WEST CHESTER, Pa. – In a nationally ranked Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) match up, No. 8 Millersville (4-4) field hockey fell in a tightly contested 5-4 decision against No. 5 West Chester (7-2) on Wednesday evening. Despite a strong first-half performance, the Marauders could not hold off the Golden Rams' comeback effort.

HOW IT HAPPENED
Millersville jumped out to a commanding start, with Faith Bollinger scoring the first goal of the contest just 50 seconds into play. The Marauders would soon find that back of the net quickly after Alexis Kern scored her sixth goal of the season with 8:34 minutes into the first quarter.

The Marauders went up a third goal making the score 3-0 just under two minutes into the second quarter with another goal from Kern. The Golden Rams scored two unanswered goals to cut the Marauder lead to one. It wasn't until Kern struck again with her hat-trick goal with 1:30 remaining in the first half to go back up two. West Chester scored with 30 seconds left to make the score 4-3 in favor of the Marauders going into the break.

West Chester responded with two unanswered goals, the goal that put the game on ice was scored with just under six minutes left to play in regulation, but the second half was all Golden Rams as they went on to beat the Maruaders 5-4. 

INSIDE THE BOX SCORE

• Alexis Kern, earned her first career hat-trick as a Marauder and scored three of Millersvilles' four goals. 
• The Marauders recorded 12 shots, including seven on goal, while the Golden Rams doubled that total with 23 shots, 14 of which were on target.
• Goalkeepers Sarah Crysler and Addy Arkhurst tallied nine saves to keep Millersville in contention, while West Chester's defense registered three saves.
• Millersville earned four penalty corners compared to West Chester's seven.

• This team has proven they can hang with the best teams in the nation, I mean we are one of the best in the nation, what is the key to getting over that hump and coming out with wins in these games? 
  • "I think we are a good team, and I loved how we played hard tonight. Unfortunately we had a poor 2nd quarter and I think had crucial errors in turnovers that led to conceding goals - that is not going to cut it! We have to as a team be better. That's on me to help us there."
• Your defense conceded 23 total shots tonight, 14 of which were on goal. What is going to be the key for your defense to tighten things up on the back end and turn some of those defensive stops into offensive possessions?
  • "The word I used was just that; we have to tighten things up - from our goalkeepers to our bench. We are better than our performance in how we defended tonight.  I thought we were too sloppy in our defensive 1/3 and gave away too much.  The kids know how to fix it and it starts with me to them. We will learn and get better from this. I do think our 4 goals scored tonight were great mix of corner and field goals. Lexi had 3 of those, which was a really great showing by her. Unfortunately we allowed one too many."

The Marauders return home on Saturday for another PSAC match up, hosting Indiana (PA) at Biemesderfer Stadium. Game time is set for 9:30 a.m.