Box Score

TROY, NY (September 28, 2011) – The last two seconds of the first half and first 4:15 minutes of the second half proved costly for the Vassar College field hockey team, which fell to Rensselaer 2-0 on Wednesday afternoon in Liberty League play at Harkness Field.

With just two seconds until intermission, RPI broke a scoreless game when freshman forward Liana Viaggio tallied the game's first goal by rebounding a blocked shot off the stick of teammate Alissa Peterson and past Vassar sophomore goalie Maggie Brelis. Just 4:15 minutes into the second half, RPI increased its lead to 2-0 when Peterson, a junior midfielder, tallied her sixth goal of the season.

The loss drops the Brewers to 4-4, 1-1, while RPI improves to 5-2, 2-1. Vassar travels to Morrisville State on Friday for a 4:00 p.m. game, while RPI visits No. 7 nationally ranked Rowan on Saturday at 5:00 p.m.

RPI outshot Vassar 27-8 and held a 10-3 advantage in penalty corners.

Five of Vassar's eight shots came off the stick of senior forward Emily Maier, who placed two of them on goal that were saved by RPI senior goalie Briana Earle, who had four saves in the contest. Vassar came out dominant through the first ten minutes of the opening half, testing Earle early with a pair of shots from Emily Maier. Her first attempt, just 59 seconds into the contest, sailed in from just inside the top of the arc, but the RPI keeper made a heads-up play to kick the ball out of the zone.For Vassar, freshman midfielder Dara Davis had two shots that were saved by Earlie.

For the Brewers, Brelis made a season-high 10 saves and a spectacular one just 1:11 into the second half that robbed Viaggio from scoring her second goal of the game.

After RPI scored its second goal with 34:45 to play in the second half, the Engineers were able to keep the Brewers off the board and maintain their lead. The RPI defense was key down the stretch for the Engineers as a number of Vassar attempts over the final 20 minutes were blocked and kept out of the offensive zone.

The Brewers still continued to fight and the hard work nearly paid off with 18 minutes left to play as Maier carried the ball into the arc. Her shot was blocked as she got tangled up with a defender, but Davis was there for the loose ball. Despite a heads-up play, Davis was unable to catch Earle off guard as she ran out for the stop to preserve the lead.