CONSHOHOCKEN, Pa. – The 17th-ranked Old Dominion field hockey team put forth another convincing showing in a 3-0 BIG EAST win over Providence on Friday afternoon at The Proving Grounds in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania.
"I'm happy with our resilience today," head coach Andrew Griffiths said. "The environment was challenging at times, and we ended up with a large number of player-down situations because of cards. We actually handled that very well. We are still improving, and we are looking sharp in some areas. We moved the ball really well at times and got a great performance in goal from Cam today as well."
The Monarchs (7-4, 7-3 BIG EAST) notched their second-straight shutout behind six saves from Cam MacGillivray. ODU had not held consecutive opponents without a goal since it did so against American and Quinnipiac in 2018. In all, the Monarchs have not conceded a goal in just over 142 minutes, running back to the third quarter of a match with No. 4 Liberty on March 27.
Old Dominion's back line chipped in offensively as well. Nicole Fredricks scored twice against the Friars (2-8, 2-6) to match her career high. The native of West Chester, Pennsylvania – some 20 miles down the road from The Proving Grounds – also put two goals past Quinnipiac at the same venue last Friday. Marlee McClendon handed out three assists, the most by her in a single-game since a four-assist outing against Temple in 2018. The redshirt senior now has nine assists this season, matching her personal best.
All three of the Monarchs' goals came from penalty corners. Delphine Le Jeune opened the scoring in the 14th minute with assists going to Marlon de Bruijne, the first of her career, and McClendon. Le Jeune now has four goals on the season and 10 points in her last four games.
ODU took its 1-0 advantage into the intermission thanks to five first-half saves from MacGillivray.
The Monarchs doubled their advantage just before the end of the third quarter. Le Jeune and McClendon combined to set up Fredricks for her first of the game. Just five minutes later, the same scenario played out once more with Fredricks, the BIG EAST's Defensive Player of the Week, scoring off double assists from Le Jeune and McClendon.
For the game, Old Dominion held a 17-6 advantage in total shots and had 12 penalty corners to Providence's three. The Monarchs' defense limited PC to a single shot attempt in the second half, and the Friars went the final 25:35 of the match without a shot.
"This was an important conference win for us today," associate head coach Natalie Holder said. "Providence is always a tough team to play. They are very well-coached and have skillful players. I'm pleased we were able to execute on all three of our corner goals, and defensively we didn't allow any goals, which is a great achievement. We took another step today and found a way to win together. That is crucial at this part of the season."
The Monarchs and Friars meet tomorrow at noon to conclude the regular season. ODU has locked in the No. 3 seed in the upcoming BIG EAST Tournament, set for April 22 and 24 at The Proving Grounds.
No. 17 Field Hockey Tops Providence, 3-0
