COLLEGEVILLE, Pa. – The No. 15 Ursinus Field Hockey team used a dominant first half to defeat Muhlenberg 4-3 on Wednesday night at Snell Alumnae Field in Centennial Conference play.
 
 
With the win, the Bears improved to 5-3 overall and evened their Centennial record to 1-1. Meanwhile, the Mules fell to 4-4 overall and 1-1 in conference play.
 
 
The Bears set the tone early by dominating possession and had a few shots go on the Mules net. First-year Marie Brainard got the scoring going on the sixth minute when she blasted a shot past the Muhlenberg goalkeeper off a corner pass from junior Maeve Montgomery to make it 1-0. Ursinus kept the pressure going in the first quarter and added to their lead in the 13th minute when senior Ellie Bruggeman deflected a shot from sophomore Lauren Sieczkowski off a corner.
 
 
Back-to-back shots on goal from junior Mary Lauren Franz set the Bears up with another corner in the first three minutes of the second quarter, and sophomore Gigi Testa redirected a pass from classmate Rachel Buono into the net to make it 3-0. Montgomery scored the fourth goal of the half just four minutes later off a direct hit from a corner that was inserted by Buono and stopped by Franz.
 
 
Ursinus nearly added to its lead in the 33rd minute when sophomore Remi Lloyd had a shot attempt denied by a sprawling Mules goalkeeper. Lloyd then took a penalty stroke for the Bears in the 44th minute, but had her high shot deflected away off the net. Bruggeman had back-to-back shots saved in front off an untimed corner that kept the game at 4-0. The Mules scored their first goal of the game in the 46th minute of the game and slowly began controlling play in the Bears zone. Muhlenberg scored once more in the 57th minute off a corner and nearly added another in with 26 seconds left before Montgomery knocked the ball away. The Mules snuck one more goal into the net to make it a one goal game but did not regain possession after the restart since there was just four seconds left on the clock.
 
 
The Bears held a 21-10 shot advantage for the game and a 14-8 edge in shots on goal. Ursinus also held a sizable 12-3 edge in corners. Sophomore goalkeeper Adriana Palladinetti earned the win after shutting out the Mules in her three quarters of play while making three saves. Junior Makayla Baessler played the final 15 minutes and made one save. Muhlenberg goalkeeper Grace Leard suffered the loss after making nine saves and allowing four goals during the 60 minutes of play. Four different Bears scored on the evening and Buono tallied two assists.
 
 
Ursinus returns to action on Friday, September 29th as they will travel to take on McDaniel at 5:00 p.m.