St. Mary's City, Md. – It was a tale of two halves for the St. Mary's College of Maryland field hockey team Thursday afternoon as the Seahawks dropped a 3-2 non-conference decision to visiting Shenandoah University.

St. Mary's (6-5) staked an early 1-0 lead as sophomore Paige Decker (Clarksville, Md./River Hill) took a quick feed from senior forward Lauriann Parker (Woodbine, Md./Glenelg) in stride and then placed the ball into the lower left corner just 52 seconds in.

The 1-0 Seahawk advantage held until 13:42 when Shenandoah (8-6) notched the equalizer.  Senior defender Amber VanHorn (Slatedale, Pa./Northern Lehigh) found the back of the cage on a penalty corner, rifling in a shot just inside the far post after receiving a pass from first-year forward Alexandra Darrow (Chesapeake, Va./Western Branch).

It was déjà vu less than six minutes later as VanHorn struck again off an assist from Darrow on a penalty corner at 19:21.  Thirty-two seconds later, Darrow scored one for herself as she put in the rebound from a Hornet shot that bounced off sophomore goalkeeper Christy Bishop's (Glenwood, Md./Glenelg) pads.  Shenandoah headed into halftime with a 3-1 margin.

The Seahawks dominated the second half, posting a 15-1 shot advantage and 12-0 penalty corner margin in the final 35 minutes, but could not finish on the many scoring opportunities until the final minute of the contest.

Parker picked up her second assist of the day with 17 seconds left in the regulation as Parker sent in a hard shot from the top of the circle towards goal where senior defender Ali McIntosh (Stevensville, Md./Kent Island) deflected the shot to the left of first-year keeper Katelyn Gregory (Chesapeake, Va./Great Bridge).

St. Mary's tallied an 18-7 shot margin for the contest while owning a 15-4 advantage in penalty corners.

Bishop ended the game with two saves while Gregory came up with four stops.

The Seahawks return to action on Saturday, October 13 when St. Mary's travels to Virginia to take on Bridgewater (Va.) College for non-conference action at 2:00 pm.

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