St. Mary’s Advances to Second Straight CAC Title Game
St. Mary's City, Md. - The second-seeded St. Mary's College of Maryland field hockey team eliminated third-seeded University of Mary Washington, 3-2, on a rainy Wednesday afternoon in the Capital Athletic Conference semifinal round. St. Mary's (8-8) now advances to Saturday's CAC championship game for the second consecutive season after the Seahawks won the stroke-off, 2-0.
The Seahawks will face No. 1-seed Salisbury University, the No. 8 team in the country, on Saturday for the CAC title. The game time will be announced at a later date.
The two teams were knotted at 2-2 at the end of regulation and played two 15-minute overtime periods before the game was determined by a penalty stroke shootout.
Sophomore goalie Emma Lauhoff (Wayne, Pa./Radnor) came through for the Seahawks during the shootout with three saves. Attempts by the Eagles' senior Sarah Pierson (New Vernon, N.J./Oak Knoll) and sophomore Emma Jones (Yorktown, Va./York) were both stopped by Lauhoff before junior Sarah Trimble's (Yorktown, Va./Tabb) stroke went wide left. Lauhoff then saved sophomore Kristen Haynor's (Oakton, Va./James Madison) shot for the Seahawk victory.
Senior forward Emily Norris (Timonium, Md./Dulaney) started the shootout for St. Mary's with a goal before junior defender Julia Puzak's (Arnold, Md./Broadneck) attempt went wide right. Sophomore forward Katie Cox (Frederick, Md./Linganore) notched the second and final penalty stroke goal for SMCM in the shootout.
The two teams played a scoreless first half as Mary Washington (13-6) led 5-4 in shots and had a goal called back.
St. Mary's got on the scoreboard first in the second half as senior midfielder Emily Smithson (Richmond, Va./James River) converted on a stroke at 41:20. Smithson struck again just 2:11 later during a penalty corner as Norris inserted the ball to sophomore Jackie Ward (Annapolis, Md./Annapolis) who sent across to Smithson. Smithson then took two dribbles before firing in a shot into the lower left corner.
However, the Eagles weren't out of it yet as senior forward Alison Weckstein (Great Falls, Va./Langley) deflected in a cross from senior forward Amy Santella (Summit, N.J./Summit) at 47:12. Trimble then scored the game-tying goal with 6.4 seconds left in regulation as she went one-on-one with Lauhoff.
The Eagles outshot St. Mary's, 8-3, in overtime but had another goal called back. Mary Washington ended the game with four goals called back.
Lauhoff finished the game with nine saves, while sophomore Chrissy Bowdren (Fairfax Station, Va./Robinson) recorded six.
