MOUNT OLIVE, N.C. - 11 months ago, Leira Van Tilburg (Nieuw-Vennep, Netherlands) gave the Lander Field Hockey team their first-ever win over the Mount Olive Trojans with a tip-in goal at the fourth quarter horn in the SAC Tournament Semifinals. On Sunday, the sophomore found the magic again as she unleashed a backhand shot that found the back of the cage to give the Bearcats a key South Atlantic Conference win over the Trojans, 1-0, at the Ray McDonald Sports Complex.
Lander improved to 9-5 overall and 8-3 in SAC play while Mount Olive dropped to 8-6 overall and 7-5 in the league.
Both teams had several chances throughout regulation to find the opening goal but both keepers stood their ground. Isabel Elenga (Hillegom, Netherlands) made six saves across the four regulation quarters to keep the game scoreless and send it to overtime.
After the first overtime saw no shots from either team, the offenses came alive in the second overtime as the Trojans had back-to-back shots go wide before Lander took control offensively. The Bearcats had four straight shots saved by the Mount Olive keeper but were awarded a penalty corner which was taken by Iris Van Der Does (Rotterdam, The Netherlands) who inserted the ball to Victoria Hulst (Maarssen, Netherlands). Hulst passed the ball off to Van Tilburg, and after a little bobble, gained control and fired the winning goal into the cage to give Lander the win.
The Bearcats continue this key stretch of four games in six days as they travel to league-leading Newberry on Tuesday for a 6:00 PM start time. Lander then returns home for the penultimate regular season game on Thursday against Limestone, who currently sits tied with the Bearcats in second place in the standings, at 7:00 PM before finishing the season at Frank Hill Stadium on Saturday against Mount Olive at noon.
