No. 4 West Chester Visits No. 5 Bloomsburg Tuesday Afternoon

WEST CHESTER at BLOOMSBURG
Game Details: 4:00 p.m. | Tuesday, Oct. 1
Location: Bloomsburg, Pa. | Steph Pettit Stadium
Game Links: Watch | Live Stats

GOLDEN RAMS TRAVEL TO BLOOMSBURG FOR REMATCH WITH HUSKIES
• West Chester (7-2, 1-0) heads north Tuesday afternoon for a Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) matchup with Bloomsburg (8-2, 0-1) at Steph Pettit Stadium at 4 p.m. It marks the second meeting this year between the two conference rivals. West Chester defeated Bloomsburg, 2-1, in a non-league encounter on Sept. 13.
• West Chester is coming off a convincing 6-2 win over visiting Slippery Rock on Saturday in the conference opener for the Golden Rams. Bloomsburg dropped a 3-0 decision to the top-ranked team in the country, Shippensburg, in its PSAC opener over the weekend.
• Senior forward Jasmine Miller (Millersville, Pa./Penn Manor) registered her second hat trick on the year in the win. That matched her career high for goals in a season. Paige Wolfe (Downingtown, Pa./Downingtown East), Gianna Funari (Voorhees, N.J./Bishop Eustace) and Erin O'Donnell (Lansdale, Pa./North Penn) also scored.
• West Chester is on a three-game winning streak and has won 7 of 8 since a season-opening loss to nationally ranked Assumption. The Golden Rams are 3-2 overall in one-goal games, including the first meeting between these two. Though most of West Chester's games so far this fall have been at home, the Golden Rams are 2-0 on the road with wins over Adelphi and nationally ranked Mansfield. West Chester is also 3-2 against nationally ranked opponents so far this season.

ABOUT BLOOMSBURG
• Bloomsburg comes into Tuesday's game averaging 4.3 goals per game on 20 shots per contest. The Huskies like to score goals and have been very good at it so far this fall. However, they are coming off a scoreless outing against No. 1 Shippensburg, and they only scored once (that in the last minute of the game) against West Chester a few weeks ago.
• For the second time in three weeks, Aydan McFarland was been named National Field Hockey Coaches Association (NFHCA) National Player of the Week last Tuesday. McFarland has had a stellar start to her senior campaign, posting nation-leading 35 points and 15 goals this season while the Huskies rank No. 4 with an 8-1 record. In a 3-0 week for the maroon and gold, the Bloomsburg native deposited eight goals and four assists. McFarland recorded back-to-back hat tricks against New Haven and Roberts Wesleyan before netting two against D'Youville. McFarland is the first Husky since Jenna DiSabatino in 2012 to record three-consecutive multi-goal games.
 
THE GOLDEN RAMS vs THE HUSKIES OVER THE YEARS
• West Chester shows an all-time record of 17-4 against Bloomsburg, including 15 straight heading into Tuesday. The PSAC powers met in 1983 when West Chester played one season at Division II, before sliding up to Division I from 1984 to 2010. The two sides resumed the rivalry in 2011 with the Huskies winning both regular-season encounters. West Chester exacted revenge with a win on strokes in the NCAA Semifinals on Steph Pettit's turf. Bloomsburg has only beaten West Chester once since that 2011 campaign.
• West Chester is also 9-1 on the turf at Steph Pettit Stadium, winning the 2011 NCAA Championship in the process.  
 
THE GOLDEN RAMS vs THE HUSKIES EARLIER THIS YEAR (SEP 13 at WCU)
• Host West Chester scored a pair of goals in the opening quarter and then held on late for a 2-1 victory over visiting Bloomsburg in a non-league field hockey contest under the lights at Vonnie Gros Field Friday evening.
 
West Chester (3-1) increased its win streak to three straight since a season-opening setback to Assumption while putting an end to a consecutive shutout string of just over 202 minutes by Bloomsburg (4-1). It also put an end to the Huskies' four-game win streak to open the campaign.
 
Freshman Veerle Hersman (Lisse, The Netherlands) knocked home a rebound off the left post in the eighth minute as the Golden Rams' struck first. Then, West Chester forced a penalty corner with three seconds left in the opening quarter and converted in the extra time. Ella Shockley's (Delmar, Del./Delmar) slapshot from the top of the circle beat Bloomsburg goalie Jackie Nevel, doubling the Golden Rams' lead.
 
That is how things stayed until a furious rally at the end of the game saw the Huskies cut the deficit in half and threaten in extra time as well. Kate Ferguson tipped home a shot off a penalty corner in the 59th minute to spoil West Chester goalkeeper Ryan Curley's (Malvern, Pa./Great Valley) shutout bid. But the visitors weren't done.
 
Bloomsburg pinned the Golden Rams down in the far corner in their own end for the remainder of the contest and forced another penalty corner with three seconds left in the game. On that opportunity, the Huskies forced a second corner, but could not capitalize, sending a sigh of relief down West Chester's entire bench.