WILKES-BARRE, PA (October 5, 2018) -- The King's College field hockey team dropped its first Middle Atlantic Conference (MAC) Freedom game of the season Friday evening, as visiting Eastern University scored a pair of goals in each half to earn the 4-2 win from McCarthy Stadium. 

Eastern (3-9, 1-2 MAC Freedom) burst out of the gates Friday evening, as Ali Balmer and Alison Hoag tallied 2:03 apart in the opening 8:07 of the game to give the Eagles a 2-0 lead. Minutes later, King's answered to make the score 2-1 at 9:30 as Rachel Zultevicz pushed in a pass from Kelley O'Keefe from the left end line for her second goal of the season. 

With just under two minutes to play, King's nearly tied the score at two after a great break-out from the defensive zone. Senior Kelsey Gabriele found Zultevicz streaking down the middle of the field unmarked but her shot alone against the goalkeeper clanged off the post and out. 

Right before the half, Eastern nearly regained its two goal lead but Taylor Runo posted a defensive save with no time remaining to send the game to halftime with the same 2-1 scoreline. King's would outshoot EU in the opening stanza 10-7. 

After the break, the Eagles regained its two-goal lead for the second time in the game as Hoag slotted a rebound of her own shot in at 36:14 to make it 3-1. The Monarchs responded with great spurt over the next 10 minutes, nearly scoring twice but EU's Harper Sellers twice made defensive saves. 

King's broke through though for its second goal in the 50th minute, as Gabriele camped out at the right post and tapped in a driven pass from O'Keefe for her seventh goal of the year. The momentum though quickly shifted back to Eastern, as it scored only 2:52 later at 52:24, with Balmer driving through the defense for her second of the game. 

In the 59th minute, Gabriele had three more great chances but EU keeper Marley Redfield made a trio of consecutive saves to deny the King's leading goal scorer. That's as close as the Monarchs would get though, as Eastern held on for its first MAC Freedom win of the season. 

King's fired the second-most shots of the season on Friday with 23, putting 14 on-goal in the contest, while outshooting EU by six. King's tallied a season-best 15 penalty corners as well, holding a 15-10 edge in corners in the contest. Gabriele took a game-high 11 shots for King's, and Jolee Treslar added five attempts as well. 

KC returns to action on Wednesday evening on the road, taking on Keuka College in Keuka Park, NY at 7 p.m. in the final non-conference game of the year.