First Round (at Gettysburg): #5 Franklin & Marshall d. #4
Gettysburg, 2-1.
Semifinal (at Collegeville): #1 Ursinus d. #5 Franklin &
Marshall, 9-0.
Semifinal (at Collegeville): #2 Johns Hopkins d. #3 Muhlenberg,
2-1.
Final (at Collegeville): #1 Ursinus d. #2 Johns Hopkins, 4-2.
COLLEGEVILLE, PA - Host Ursinus got two goals in the final two minutes of the first half and two more in a span of just under three minutes early in the second half as the Bears slipped past Johns Hopkins, 4-2, in the 2007 Centennial Conference Field Hockey Championship game Sunday afternoon. Ursinus, the defending national champion, claimed its fourth straight Centennial Conference Championship, improves to 18-2 on the year and receives the Centennial's automatic bid to the upcoming NCAA Tournament. Johns Hopkins slips to 14-5 and will learn its NCAA fate when the bracket for the tournament is announced at 10 pm Sunday night.
Hopkins grabbed an early 1-0 lead when sophomore Andrea
Vandersall punched home her sixth goal of the season off an assist
from senior Kristin Strief just 4:23 into the game. Ursinus carried
slightly more of the play through the next 28 minutes, but it
looked as if the Blue Jays might carry the one-goal lead into
halftime before the quick-strike Bears scored twice late in the
first half to take a 2-1 lead.
Lindsey Doutt tied the score at the 33:23 mark when she beat
Hopkins goalie Sophia Tieu with a long shot from the left side of
the circle. Just 90 seconds later the Bears drew a foul and a
penalty corner and made the Blue Jays pay. Junior Kait Sutherland
scored on the extra play with no time on the clock off an assist
from Jessica Zatwarnicki to give Ursinus the one-goal lead at the
half.
Vandersall and the Blue Jays needed just three minutes of the
second half to tie the game as junior Leah Horton's shot from the
top of the circle was redirected by Vandersall past Ursinus goalie
Jessica Lamina to make it 2-2 with 32 minutes remaining. However,
the tie wouldn't last long and Hopkins couldn't solve Lamina
again.
Less than three minutes after Vandersall's second goal the Bears
took the lead for good when Lindsay Cappa took a pass from Jennie
Moore and quickly slipped a shot into the goal from in tight and
Megan Yoder's unassisted goal less than three minutes later
provided the insurance for Ursinus, which ran its winning streak to
10 with the win. The two goals the Blue Jays scored in Sunday's
title-game were as many as the Bears had allowed in their previous
nine games combined.