BOX SCORE
Reading, Pa. (November 3, 2007) – The Alvernia field hockey team captured their second Pennsylvania Athletic Conference (PAC) title in three years this afternoon at home after Janelle Lynch (Macungie, PA/Brandywine Heights) netted the tying goal with less than two minutes left to force overtime. The score remained 2-2 through both of the 15-minute overtimes and Alvernia was the eventual champion downing Eastern 4-3 in penalty strokes.
The Crusaders, who were looking to avenge their 2-0 loss that Eastern handed to them in the 2006 PAC Final jumped out to an early lead in the sixth minute when Lynch ripped a shot from the left side of the net that was quickly redirected for a goal by freshman Christy Yousaitis (West Lawn, PA/Wilson). The Crusaders held of the Eagles attack for the next 22 minutes despite Eastern's seven penalty corners and five shots. Eastern would break-though with the equalizer in the 28th minute when freshman Hope Donnelly (Willow Grove, PA/Abington) drilled one into the net off of a penalty corner.
The Eagles held the slight 6-4 advantage in shots after the first half and the decisive 7-1 edge in penalty corners.
With the game tied at one apiece entering the second half, Eagle midfielder Donnelly quickly gave Eastern their first lead of the game less than two minutes into the second half. Donnelly recovered teammate Stephanie Moyer's (Telford, PA/Christopher Dock) rebound and placed it just past Crusader goalie Audrey Hoffman (Mertztown, PA/Brandywine Heights) for her second goal of the game.
Alvernia would battle hard through the second half with Hoffman needing eights saves to hold Eastern at only two goals. The Crusaders seemed poised to net the tying goal when they earned six penalty corners over a late-game 12-minute span. However, they were unable to capitalize on these corners until the 69th minute when Amber Landis (Ephrata, PA/Ephrata) passed in the penalty corner ball to Lynch who quickly fired a shot from the top of the circle that was blocked by an Eastern defender. Senior midfielder Lynsey Treadwell (Farmingdale, NJ/Howell) was right there to follow-up Lynch with a shot on goal that had Eastern's goalie beat, but the Eagle defense would pull through with a defensive save to deny Treadwell the game-tying goal. To return the favor, Lynch followed up Treadwell and popped a shot over the outstretched Eagle goalie and defenders for the game tying goal with 1:30 left in the game.
The game would head into the first overtime knotted at two. Both teams managed two shots in the 15-minute overtime with none more dangerous than the blast off the stick of Yousaitis in the 78th minute, which was saved by Eastern goalie Kelly Garland (Lanhartsville, PA/Kutztown).
Alvernia and Eastern would regroup and gear up for the second overtime. The Crusaders held the 4-2 advantage in shots as well as the 2-0 edge in penalty corners. Junior Christy Miller (Alburtis, PA/Brandywine Heights) had Alvernia's best chance when she missed just left of the goalie in the 91st minute.
The evenly match teams would continue their scoreless trend into penalty strokes, as both teams managed to score only one out of their first five chances, and two out of their second five chances.
Eastern appeared to be in control in the second penalty shot round as they were successful on their first two shots and Alvernia was scoreless in their first two. Hoffman would keep the Crusaders in the game with the help of a stick save, a wide-left shot by Eastern and a pad-save on their final three attempts. Freshman Ashley Tatangelo (Hummelstown, PA/Lower Dauphin) was successful on Alvernia's fourth shot and senior Landis forced the sudden-death shootout when she netted Alvernia's fifth attempt.
Tatangelo would once again step to the line for the Crusaders and connect for her third successful penalty stroke of the afternoon for the eventual game-winner after Hoffman denied Eastern senior Ellen Hivner (Landisville, PA/Hempfield).
Hoffman earned PAC Championship Game MVP honors for her 13-save game and her stirring performance in the shootout.
With the win Alvernia has qualified for the NCAA Championship for the third consecutive year and will now await the announcement of opponent and location for their first-round game. The Crusaders hold a 1-2 record in two NCAA appearances.
Alvernia 2, Eastern 2 (Alvernia 4-3 Shootout)
