MOUNT OLIVE, N.C. - Less than a week after the Lander Field Hockey team suffered their most lopsided loss of the season to the then fifth-ranked Mount Olive Trojans, the Bearcats returned back to eastern North Carolina on Friday afternoon and flipped the script as a goal by
Leira Van Tilburg (Nieuw-Vennep, Netherlands) as the final horn sounded gave the Blue and Gold the 1-0 win over the fourth-ranked Trojans in the South Atlantic Conference Field Hockey Championship Semifinals.
The Bearcats improved to 12-6 on the season while the Trojans fell to 15-2 and will await their fate for a NCAA Tournament bid this weekend.
The first half was a evenly contested battle as Lander controlled possession for most of the first quarter followed by the Trojans slowly starting to grow into the game in the second quarter. However, neither team could find the back of the net and headed into halftime scoreless.
Neither offense could get a shot off in the third quarter but the fourth quarter saw Mount Olive start to control possession and get several breakaways and penalty corners and it seemed like a goal was surely on the horizon for the hosts. However, that goal never came as
Isabel Elenga (Hillegom, Netherlands) made three saves in the final 15 minutes, including three successive penalty corners.
With just under 30 seconds left, the Bearcats were awarded a long corner that was passed into the circle and while
Lauren Punt (Maasdam, Netherlands) initial shot was saved, Van Tilburg, who had made a defensive save earlier to keep it scoreless, was there to usher it into the back of the net and usher Lander into the SAC Championship Game.
Lander now awaits the winner of the second semifinal between second-seeded Newberry and third-seeded Limestone in the South Atlantic Conference Championship Game on Sunday. The game is scheduled to start at 2:00 PM on the campus of the University of Mount Olive.
