MOUNT OLIVE, N.C. - The Lander Field Hockey team went into halftime down one to the fifth-ranked Mount Olive Trojans but three unanswered goals to start the second half allowed the hosts to pull away to down the Blue and Gold in the regular season finale for both teams, 5-2.
Lander finishes the regular season at 10-6 and 9-5 in SAC play. They will be the four seed in the upcoming SAC Tournament and will host a quarterfinal game on Tuesday. Mount Olive, who wrapped up the SAC Regular Season Title last weekend, improves to 15-1 and finishes a perfect 14-0 in SAC play.
The Trojans struck twice within the span of a minute with under five to go in the first quarter but just three minutes into the second quarter that lead was cut in half by a
Merle Vieregge (Düsseldorf, Germany) tip in from the cross from
Lauren Punt (Maasdam, Netherlands) to make it 2-1 going into halftime.
After the half, Mount Olive got three goals spread out through the third and fourth quarters to make it a 5-1 game, the last one coming with under nine minutes to go in the fourth quarter. Lander fought to try to get back into the game and
Leira Van Tilburg (Nieuw-Vennep, Netherlands) pulled a goal back with just over five minutes to play but that would be as close as the Blue and Gold would get.
The Lander Field Hockey team opens SAC Tournament play on Tuesday when they host a quarterfinal game at Newberry's Setzler Field. The game is scheduled to start at 7:30 and the opponent will be officially announced later this weekend.
