Bridgewater, Va. – Before the game on Wednesday, March 24, sophomore Annika Benson explained how much her team has learned from their first loss of the season against Southern Virginia University. 

“Going into this game, we talked about not giving away as many turnovers and a greater communication between our defensive players,” said Benson. “I know we are prepared for this season, especially with the freshmen having more knowledge of what they can expect at a collegiate level game.” 

With only two minutes into the first half of the game, first-year midfielder Kaity Petersheim scored her first collegiate goal, assisted by first-year attacker Ashlet Venit. 

Thirty seconds later, sophomore attacker Juliana Ghally of EMU responded with a free position shot goal. With 27:04 remaining, EMU held their only lead of the night with first-year midfielder Meghan Hickey scoring another free position shot goal for EMU, taking their lead to 2-1.

With 25:29 remaining, Benson responded with her first goal of the night, and her fourth of the season, after being assisted by Venit — tying the game 2-2.

The Eagles put up nine more goals from first-year attacker Aunnie Hacker (5), junior defender Melissa Wilson (1), senior attacker Olivia Carson (1), sophomore attacker Allison Burris (1) and senior midfielder Jodie Welsh (1) with 15:23 remaining in the first half.

 During the Eagles nine goal streak, two yellow cards were awarded to Petersheim and Wilson, leaving the Eagles playing down a man, but still scoring four goals with fewer players on the field. 

With 13:33, Royals sophomore attacker Bri Garcia-Sanchez halted the Eagles scoring drive by scoring her first goal of the season — cutting the deficit to 3-11.

Petersheim and Hacker increased the Eagles lead to 13-3 with 4:40 remaining in the first half. 

With 1:46 remaining in the first half, Garcia-Sanchez scored her second goal and the final goal of the first half. 

The Royals scored the first two goals of the second half with 24:36 remaining to cut the Eagle lead to 6-13. 

The Eagles respond by returning with two straight goals from Burris and Petersheim to increase the score to 15-6 with 20:48 remaining in the half.

The Eagles scored six straight in the second half from Petersheim (2), Hacker (3) and Burris (1)  to extend their lead to 14. The Eagles continued their scoring drive as the Royals put up their last goal for the night with five minutes remaining in the half — making the score 21-8. 

First-year attacker Brooke Hanson scored her first collegiate goal of the season after being assisted by Wilson. Petersheim received her second yellow card and Burris received her first yellow card of the night. 

Hacker led in goals (8), Venit led in assists (3) and Brooks committed 14 saves throughout the night. 

“I think we have a lot of potential this year,” explains Benson. “We have a lot of really good freshmen that contribute really well along with the upperclassmen like Jodie and Mikaela to help set the tone for the rest of us.”  

BC improves to 1-1 in regular competition and 1-0 in ODAC play. The Eagles will travel to Randolph-Macon on Saturday, March 27.