November 12, 2014
Eagles Defeat Griffins 2-1, Advance to Sweet Sixteen
Huntingdon, Pa., Playing in their first NCAA Division III Field Hockey Tournament game since 2010, the Landmark Conference champion Juniata Eagles defeated Gwynedd-Mercy 2-1 to advance to round two of the tournament.
Dan Sherman
Asst. SID
Juniata
814-641-3513
Huntingdon, Pa., Playing in their first NCAA Division III Field Hockey Tournament game since 2010, the Landmark Conference champion Juniata Eagles defeated Gwynedd-Mercy 2-1 to advance to the "Sweet Sixteen" round of play. Eagles fans got to experience yet another thrilling victory in the team's final home game of the season.
The team has really shown its grown over the last month, in which it has not won a single game in regulation, "It's not really a concern of ours, and we've proven in the last couple of months. Going a month without winning a game in regulation. Almost every game this past month has gone to double overtime. We feel good about that though, we feel that we have absolutely proven ourselves to ourselves and we take that attitude out on the field. You want to expect to win, but not expect the win to come. You have to be willing to fight for the win and I think this team has proven that they have the fight in them and they have the ability to finish. The last month has proven just how tough we are."
The Griffins scored first, taking a 1-0 lead off of a corner
in the 13th minute. Brittany Wilson assisted Megan
Senkeleski, who sent the ball past keeper Julianne Jones
(Middleburg, PA / Midd-West) during a scrum in front of
the cage. That would be all that Jones and the Juniata defense
would yield. The defense kept the team in the game and came up huge
for the Eagles tonight. Tori Buser
(Allentown, PA / Parkland) and Kelsey
Leibelsperger (Fleetwood, PA / Fleetwood) each had
defenses saves. Coach Caroline Gillich spoke highly of her two
defenders after the contest, "Huge, huge defensive effort. You
don't always see that things that Tori does, but there is so much
that that kid does that is not seen, she is just a huge factor for
us on defense. Kelsey L has an amazing ability to end runs time and
time again with her fabulous timing and block tackles. Its no
question an attacker hits a wall when they hit Kelsey."
Juniata had opportunities to tie the game before the half.
Sarah Bilheimer
(Bethlehem, PA / Freedom) had a one-on-one opportunity in
front of the net but the keeper came out, blocking the shot, and
knocking the forward to the ground. Later, with three minutes left
in the half, the junior pulled up in front of the net and fired a
shot at the open left side of the cage, but missed wide.
At the break Gillich told her team that they needed to come
out stronger in the second half, "My message to the team at the
half was we need to pick it up. We were not playing at a level that
was going to win this game. It was not that we can't, it was that
we're not right now, so we need to change that. We needed to start
sprinting and supporting the ball better defensively and
offensively. We were hesitating in the first half and it was
hurting us. They really needed to go all out in this last 35
minutes."
Juniata spent much of the start of the second half in the
Griffin zone, with many chances to score early, but were not able
to tie the game at that point. Katie Alexander
(Mifflinburg, PA / Mifflinburg) dribbled the ball through
the defense passing to Bilheimer in front of the cage. The keeper
came out to meet the two and fell on the ball. The play should have
resulted in a penalty stroke for the Eagles, giving them a good
chance to tie it up, but the ref did not blow her whistle and the
Griffins took over possession.
Moments later, Alexander moved her way through the defense yet
again. She juked out the keeper on a one-on-one opportunity, but
pushed the ball too far out of her reach and was not able to take
the shot that would have resulted in a sure Eagles goal and a tie
game.
Juniata was finally able to score the equalizer in the
57th minute, when the Griffin keeper charged out of the
cage, leaving the goal exposed for an Eagle attack. Allison Groft
(Hanover, PA / South Western) played the ball past the
keeper, to where Sarah Spencer
(Florence, NJ / Florence Township Memorial) was waiting in
front of the cage. She redirected the ball to Bilheimer, who was
right beside her. The junior put it in to tie the game at one. Just
over a minute later, Spencer scored on an assist from Groft to put
Juniata ahead with just over ten minutes left in the game. It was
Spencer's third goal of the season and her first since the first
game of the 2014 campaign.
Spencer had a strong day off the bench for the Eagles, with
the game winner and an assist. Her coach was very encouraged by her
play, not only in this game, but all season, "She came out of no
where this season, coming in as that freshman who didn't get a
whole lot of playing time, and became that sophomore who in the
firs game of the year, scored two goals and said, 'I'm ready to be
here, I'm ready to play', and I feel like she made that statement
again tonight saying, 'I want to be here for my team and I want do
this.' She been a huge spark off the bench all year, you couldn't
ask for more out of a sub, than what you get out of Sarah
Spencer."
Overall, Gillich was proud of the way her team has continued
to battle, and did so again to earn the victory tonight, "We're
very excited to be moving on to the sweet sixteen. It was a battle
of a game. Having played three overtime games last week, it
definitely showed a little bit early on. The girls were not quite
firing on all cylinders. It took them a while to get going against
a team that was ready to play an NCAA game. They came out hard,
fast, and strong. In the second half we were a little bit stronger
and then scoring those back-to-back goals was kind of complete
insanity, it flipped the game in its head. It made us realize how
much we really do want this. So what if we're tired, so what if
we're exhausted, so what if we think we have nothing left to give,
we do. That this is so worth it and we really
want this. I think that really invigorated us and woke us up to the
fact that we had to find a way to win this game and we did. We
buckled down on defense towards the end. I think it was one of the
first times on defense we faced a lot of corners at the end of the
game and shut them down. In the past, we've had that and have gone
into overtime, but not today. We were able to hold them off long
enough to run the clock out, but kudos to them. They came out hard
and fast, and played probably one of their best games all year.
Fortunately, we were able to put it all together."
This team has continued to show that they do not back down and
are not afraid of a challenge. When things do not go their way or
they find themselves in a tight spot, they remain poised and always
seem to pull through, "Being down to us, is not as stressful as it
is to other teams, because we have so much belief in our ability to
score, so much belief in our fight. That if somebody pushes us,
we're going to come back harder the next time."
The home fans came out in droves to support their Eagles
tonight, in what was the largest crowd of the season. The fans
added to the playoff atmosphere and provided a lot of extra energy,
"getting to host the tournament, to see Juniata out in force,
pretty much from every direction you could hear Juniata fans
cheering. That's what you hope for. You could see and feel the
energy, and you could hear from the reaction just how everyone was
feeling."
With the win, the Eagles advance to the Sweet Sixteen for
the first time since 2007, when the team made it to the Elite
Eight. Juniata will travel to Salisbury to play Wellesley on
Saturday. Looking ahead to this weekend's matchup, Gillich stated
she was looking forward to seeing what her team could do against a
top ranked opponent, "Really excited to be playing against
Wellesley, I think we'll match up well with them I think it will be
a great hockey game, where both teams are able to show off their
abilities. Hopefully, we'll see the high quality play we're capable
of playing against a strong opponent. Real excited to be playing
them in the sweet sixteen."
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