Lock Haven senior Kristi Shepps earned Atlantic 10 Field Hockey Player of the Week honors after tallying eight points in a three-game span last week.

Shepps is the Lady Hawks’ leading scorer this season and was instrumental in victories over Saint Francis and Georgetown in the team’s last two contests.

In the win over Saint Francis, Shepps notched two assists and scored the game-winning goal. In the game against Georgetown, she continued her impressive effort by scoring two more important goals en route to a 3-1 victory.

Saint Joseph’s freshman Jordan Martin also received praise this week, as she was named the Atlantic 10 Rookie of the Week when she achieved the first multi-goal game of her career in a disappointing loss to Delaware, 5-4. Martin has put up impressive numbers thus far in 2011 with four goals in seven games. Martin’s four goals are the most for a Hawks freshman since 2007 and have her tied with senior Ellen Rowe for the team lead.

Lock Haven plays three more games before getting into A-10 action while Saint Joseph’s has one more non-conference game before opening conference play against Temple.

Cavaliers squash Spiders

The Richmond field hockey team was defeated, 3-2, by Virginia on Sunday dropping their record to 5-4 on the year.

The Spiders lost the matchup despite outshooting the Cavaliers, 13-12, and taking two more penalty corners than their counterparts (9-7).

Virginia got the ball rolling in the 14th minute when sophomore Lane Smith’s tipped ball got past Spiders goalie Anna Zarkoski for a 1-0 advantage. The Cavaliers extended the lead to 2-0 just 11 minutes later on a shot from the top of the circle by sophomore forward Elly Buckley. Buckley struck again early in the second half pushing the lead to 3-0 and seemingly ending the Spiders’ hope for a victory.

However, Richmond wasn’t ready to quit yet. Goals by senior Katelin Peterson in the 51st minute and freshman Rebecca Barry with 10-minutes remaining in the game cut the Spiders’ deficit to one goal, but they were unable to provide any more offense and the comeback effort fell short.

Though it was a tough loss, the Spiders have some big games coming up as they take on No. 1 Old Dominion (8-0) and in-state rival William and Mary (6-2) before opening conference play against a struggling Saint Louis (1-7) squad.

Billikens struggling to score goals

Saint Louis has had trouble winning games this year, as evidenced by their 1-7 record, and Saturday was no exception as the squad was routed by Ohio, 7-0.

The loss marked the third time in eight games that the Billikens have been shut out by an opponent, and continued the trend of poor offensive outputs for the team.

The defense has been just as disappointing as the offense for Saint Louis, as they have been outscored 37-8 this season, which equates to almost five goals allowed per game.

Saturday’s contest saw the Bobcats take the lead in the 12th minute of the first half on Cathryn Altdoerffer’s goal. Ohio then broke the game open as they were able to score three more goals in a 10-minute span to increase the lead to 4-0. By halftime, the game was well in hand as Ohio held onto a 5-0 lead.

The second half was not much better for Saint Louis as they allowed two additional goals pushing the final margin to 7-0.  The lone bright spot for the Billikens was backup goalie Megan Depew-Brady, who made 11 saves on 13 shots in relief of starter Megan Ambrose.

Greg Romagna can be reached at [email protected].