Winchester, Va. – First-year Alli Szymanski (Easton, Md./Easton) found the back of the cage for the fifth time this season in leading the St. Mary's College of Maryland field hockey team to a 1-0 non-conference victory at Shenandoah University Tuesday afternoon.

Today's win is the seventh consecutive victory for the Seahawks (7-2) and completes an undefeated 5-0 record against Old Dominion Athletic Conference opponents. St. Mary's outscored its ODAC foes – Bridgewater College, Washington & Lee University, Randolph-Macon College, Eastern Mennonite University, and Shenandoah – by a 14-5 margin.

Szymanski scored 40 seconds after in for the Seahawks as she finished off a pass from first-year Carly Todd (Crisfield, Md./Crisfield) for the early 1-0 lead at 6:55. Szymanski tallied the goal on the first team's first shot of the game.

St. Mary's tallied 10 more shots in the first half but senior goalkeeper Sarah Clare (Mechanicsville, Va.) stood up to the challenge with seven stops to keep the Hornets' deficit at one at halftime.

Shenandoah (4-7) stepped up its game in the second stanza with nine shots, three of which found their target but junior goalkeeper Christy Bishop (Glenwood, Md./Glenelg) and the Seahawk defense denied all three.

St. Mary's finished the contest with a 14-11 margin in shots while the Hornets owned a 12-9 edge in penalty corners, including a 10-2 advantage in the final 35 minutes.

Bishop made two stops in recording her first shutout of the season while sophomore defender Ally Dahlen (Poolesville, Md./Poolesville) added two defensive saves and junior defender Daniella Hanacek (Rockville, Md./T.S. Wootton) picked up one. Clare finished with eight saves for Shenandoah in its third consecutive shutout loss.

The Seahawks will be back in action this Saturday, October 5th when St. Mary's welcomes Capital Athletic Conference newcomer, No. 10 Christopher Newport University, to Seahawk Stadium for a league tilt at 11:30 am. Field hockey kicks off the Hawktoberfest at Family Weekend tripleheader Saturday as women's soccer follows at 1:30 pm and men's soccer at 3:30 pm.

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