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ST CHARLES. — Zimbabwean women’s field hockey player Rachel Goromonzi is just on fire. The talented player is breaking the NCAA Division II field hockey records in the United States for fun as she keeps on scoring for her university college side Limestone. At the weekend, an offensive outburst paired with strong defence and several more records by junior attack Goromonzi helped Limestone deliver a 5-1 victory at Lindenwood.
Sophomore attack Jill Funkhouser got the Saints offense on the board early as she took it herself with just 6:18 gone by for a 1-0 lead. Both team’s defences would then go into lock-down mode for the next 25 minutes as Limestone maintained their 1-0 lead.
With 31:11 on the clock, freshman midfielder Stembeni Zhanda, also from Zimbabwe, drove one home for a 2-0 lead only to see it disallowed due to a Saints foul. Undeterred, Zhanda would get her goal and Limestone would go up 2-0, this time to stay, as sophomore midfielder Rebekah Baker found Zhanda in front of the cage for the score at 33:54.
The Saints kept up the offensive pressure in the second half, wasting no time as Funkhouser put a pass right to Baker’s stick for an easy goal just 1:40 into the half. While it would remain a 3-0 lead for a while, it would certainly not stay at that margin as Goromonzi drilled her programme single-season record-tying 14th goal at the 53:45 mark.
In breaking the single season points and goals records, Goromonzi surpassed her own marks. She had a record 14 goals last season and accumulated 29 points in each of her first two seasons.
Lindenwood would get on the board in the ensuing seconds as Amelia Rodriguez converted her first of the season at 54:25 to narrow it to 4-1. The Saints offense would strike back quickly though as Goromonzi found Baker for her second goal, and fifth point, with 59:09 gone by to push it to 5-1.
That assist by Goromonzi also tied her for the most points in a single season by any Limestone player as she picked up her 29th of the year. From there, the Saints defence closed out the four-goal victory to earn the team’s 10th victory, a feat it has now achieved in each of the previous three seasons.
Baker led Limestone with five points on a pair of goals and an assist while Goromonzi and Funkhouser each tallied a goal and an assist. Zhanda had the only other score on the day while senior goalkeeper Lindsay Hinton went the whole way, making three saves and allowing just the one goal to improve to 10-2 on the season.
Meanwhile, Goromonzi was last week named as the Offensive Player of the Week and junior defender Rufaro Mushavi, also from Zimbabwe, was crowned the Defensive Player of the Week as announced by the Independent Schools Alliance on October 2.
It was the second straight week that Goromonzi has been so named and the second time this year that Mushavi has won her awards.
“Rachel’s leadership on the field in the attacking zone is tremendous,” said Limestone head field hockey coach Lindsay Jackson. “She ignited our scoring efforts this weekend and the team feeds off of each other’s energy to maintain momentum in the game. Rufaro is so dynamic on the field and really makes so many big defensive saves while aiding a great deal in the transition of our counter attack. She absolutely earns this award day in and day out.”
Goromonzi earned Player of the Week honours following a three-goal week that included a pair of scores in the first minute of an impressive 5-2 victory over fellow ISA member Lindenwood. She also notched a goal in a 4-2 win over Bellarmine and initially raised her league leading total to 10 goals on the season.
Mushavi was named Defencive Player of the Week after she anchored a defence that allowed just five goals in three games. Her unit also allowed just 19 shots on goal, including just three in a narrow 1-0 loss at Adelphi.
Those performances helped to lead Limestone to a 7-2 overall record, 5-0 mark in the ISA and the No. 8 ranking in the Penn Monto/NFHCA National Poll. It was the Saints’ third straight week in the national rankings since entering them at No. 7 three weeks ago. Through the first four weeks of the season, Limestone has had eight of 12 possible award winners.
Goromonzi has won the last two Offensive Player of the Week awards and is joined in that category by Jill Funkhouser while Mushavi (Weeks 1 and 4) has been the Defensive Player of the Week twice.
Lindsay Hinton also earned that recognition in Week 2. In Weeks 2 and 3, Kathleen Sigwart was named the Rookie of the Week. — NCAA.com
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