CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – Opening its season on the road against a top-10 opponent, the University of Pennsylvania field hockey team fought tooth and nail with No. 10 Wake Forest, but ultimately battled to a 2-0 loss.
 
Facing one of last season's national semifinalists, the Quakers fired nine of the final 10 shots of the game to try and level things at one-goal apiece. However, a goal by the Demon Deacons with under four minutes to go gave Wake Forest breathing room to see out the game.
 
NOTES
*Madison Woods made her return to the Penn starting lineup after suffering a season ending injury during Penn's second game of 2018. The sophomore marked her return with a solid defensive performance which included her first-career defensive save, made minutes into the second quarter.
 
*Five Quakers played all 60 minutes of this afternoon's game: Ava Rosati, Laura Shelton, Reese Vogel, Erin Kelly, and Gracyn Banks.
 
*Four Quakers made their first-career appearance today: Elita Van Staden, Sydney Huang, Meghan Ward, and Ashley Wetzel.
 
*Banks led the Quakers with four shots on the afternoon, matching her season total in 2018.
 
*Ava Rosati totaled four saves on the afternoon.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
After dropping its first two games of the season to fellow top-10 teams, Wake Forest fired out of the gates. Following a fairly contested first quarter—which ended with a Jordyn Thies shot fizzing just wide of goal—the Demon Deacons set sight on the Penn goal.
 
Just over a minute into the second period of play, Woods was called into action and made her first-career defensive save to keep Wake off the board. The Demon Deacons continued the attack and found the breakthrough midway through the quarter, with Nat Friedman deflecting a ball into the back of the net.
 
Wake Forest continued to pepper the Penn goal, but a series of spectacular saves by Rosati as well as some hard-nosed defending within the circle kept the Quakers within striking distance.
 
With minutes left in the third quarter, the Quakers' offense clicked. Ward was found in the circle and forced Isla Bint into action to make the save. The ball was recouped by Maddy Fagan and fired past Bint, but Wake's Elanor Winants cleared the ball off the line to earn a defensive save. Penn earned a corner during the sequence of play which led to a shot by Banks at the top of the circle, but Bint sprung into action again to maintain Wake's one-goal lead.
 
The Quakers continued to ride the offensive momentum into the fourth quarter, earning a corner within the first two minutes of the final interval. Banks once again fired on goal off the corner, but Bint saved again to maintain that slim lead.
 
Minutes later, Penn earned back to back corners, but the Demon Deacons' defenders stepped in front to block the subsequent two shots. The Quakers earned another corner with seven minutes to go which led to a shot by van Staden, but once again a Wake defender stepped in to block the shot.
 
Going against the run of play, Wake's Kelsey Gill found space on the right side within Penn's half. She knocked in a cross to the middle of the circle which was disposed by Friedman for her second goal of the day.
 
Despite the two-goal deficit and three minutes left on the clock, the Quakers never quit. A minute after Wake's goal, the Quakers bombed toward the Demon Deacon's cage to earn Penn's sixth corner of the game. Erin Kelly sent the ball to Banks, but her shot was blocked.
 
UP NEXT
Penn looks ahead to the final game of this year's ACC/Ivy League Conference Crossover as the Quakers look ahead to a showdown with the defending national champion and top-ranked UNC on Sunday at 1 p.m.