Colgate field hockey lost to the Bucknell Bisons in its Patriot League debut on Saturday September 29. The Raiders were defeated 0-7 at Graham Field in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania.

The Bisons had 20 total shots on goal. Sophomore starting goalie Amanda DiDom-izio saved five shots on goal while junior goalkeeper Caitlin Zolet saved two. The Raiders made only nine attempts overall. The obvious offensive advantage allowed Bucknell more opportunities on goal and the decisive victory.

The first goal of the game was scored by Bucknell junior forward Rachel Misko. Six minutes into the first half, Misko fired a close range shot from directly in front of the net. A skillful assist from Bucknell sopho-more midfielder Amie Pritchard created this goal opportunity.

Less than three minutes later, Bucknell was able to increase their lead when first-year for-ward Abby Watson captured the ball in front of the net off of a rebound and made a short pass to junior forward Leigh Hillman. Hill-man shot and made the next goal for Buck-nell, bringing the score to two-nil in favor of the Bisons.

Bucknell took nine shots on goal in the first half alone. Twenty minutes in, Hillman made an unassisted shot, which ricocheted off DiDomizio and into the net, resulting in Bucknell’s third goal of the outing. The Raid-ers saw some hope when they were given four opportunities on goal with penalty corners in the first half while the Bison were given only one.

A huge number of penalties throughout the game can be explained by the tightened NCAA penalties for warning cards in the 2012 season. Previously, a green card would result in a mere warning. Attempting to re-duce the amount of fouls, a player is now au-tomatically suspended from the game for two minutes if she receives a green card. Green cards were awarded to Colgate junior forward Halle Biggar and Thurman in the first half, making a comeback even more difficult as the Raiders played man-down for four minutes of the 35-minute half.

The second half began with another ejec-tion as sophomore midfielder Jade Dennett received a costly green card. Within the min-ute of the ejection, the Bison added another tally to their goal count as an own goal was reflected off the Colgate keeper. Five min-utes later, Bucknell senior midfielder Kelly Stefanowicz scored on a high shot assisted by Pritchard and sophomore midfielder Kelly Mucelli, making the score 0-5, Bucknell. The sixth goal was scored by a deflection into the goal by freshman forward Kiersten Sydnor with an assist from junior midfielder Vickie Resh.

The Raiders were given an opportunity to dominate in the second half as Bucknell sophomore forward and midfielder Maggie Murphy was given a yellow card with a mini-mum suspension time of five minutes. This advantage didn’t pay off. In the second half, Colgate took only one corner penalty while Bucknell hit seven. Even with luck and num-bers on their side, the Raiders couldn’t pull past the Bison.

With just 37 seconds left in the game, Bucknell first-year midfielder Kayla Sulli-van, who also doubles as a defender, banged in an unassisted goal, leaving the Bison with a shutout and a final score of 7-0 against the Raiders.

Biggar, senior midfielder Lauren Dittman and junior defender Kelsey Jensen each had two shots against the Bison. Dennett, ju-nior forward Olivia Nabhan and sophomore midfielder Rebecca Libutti each shot once. Dittman currently leads the Raiders in shots with 34, as of September 29, followed by Biggar with 25, who leads the team in goals with five, followed by Dittman with four.

The Colgate field hockey team is sched-uled to play Cornell on Tyler’s field Wednes-day night at 7:00 p.m. Then, the field hockey women will hit the road once more this week-end to play Patriot League rival Lafayette on Saturday at noon.

Contact Mallory Hart at [email protected].