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HUSKIES WIN NCAA D-II FIELD HOCKEY TITLE
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2002 NCAA D-II National Field Hockey Champions |
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LOCK HAVEN--The Bloomsburg University field hockey capped a perfect season with a near perfect game as it beat the Falcons of Bentley College, 5-0, for the NCAA Division II Field Hockey Championship. The title was the 10th national title and first since 1999 for the Huskies and coach Jan Hutchinson. The Huskies dominated play in the first half controlling the field position for much of the half. Bentley got the first corner play of the game, but the Huskies were able to survive a shot attempt by the Falcons. Bloomsburg scored first in the game on a penalty corner when Sheila Zilinski (Barto/Boyertown) scored off an Erin McConnell (Danville/Danville) assis 6:15 into the game. The goal was set up by Nikki Hartranft (Oley/Oley Valley) passing to McConnell, who fed Zilinski for the shot and score. The Huskies continued to put pressure on the Falcons and four more corners over the next 16 minutes. On the team's sixth corner of the half, Sharla Partlon (Langhorne/Neshaminy) scored off an assist from Hartranft at the 22:54 mark. Late in the first half Bloomsburg had two more good scoring chances, with Keri Beckhorn (Tunkhannock/Tunkhannock) just missing wide right and Zilinski having two shots kick-saved by Bentley goalie Liz Novis. Then with 2:11 left to play before halftime another penalty corner resulted in a Bloomsburg goal when Zilinski scored for the second time with Hartranft getting the assist. Bloomsburg continued to control field position in the second half with Alison Poff (Dallastown/Dallastown), Partlon, Julie Orner (Oxford/Oxford) and McConnell doing a great job of keeping the ball out of the Huskies end of the field. The defense was so dominant that Bentley did not get its first penalty corner of the second half till 12:30 was left to play in the game. Steph Beck (Orefield/Parkland) added to the Huskies lead when she hit the back of the net at the 43:02 mark. Sophomore Elyce Morring (York/Central York) then closed out the scoring for the Huskies with a goal at the 55:56 mark with the assist going Poff. Bloomsburg kept the shutout with some great saves by goalie Trish Leitzel (Richfield/Middleburg> in the closing minutes. Leitzel got her only two saves in the final five minutes of play to preserve the shutout. For the game, the Huskies allowed just three shots on goal and just four penalty corners. The Huskies tied the NCAA Division II record for most goals in a championship game with five, tying the record set in 1981 by Pfeiffer College. Named to the All-Tournament team for Bloomsburg were Zilinski,Hartranft, Partlon, Shanna Fritz (Benton/Benton) and Leitzel.
Bloomsburg coach Jan Hutchinson was very pleased with her team's effort. We scored on our corners all the way through, and we did better on our corners on turf than we did on grass, said Bloomsburg head coach Jan Hutchinson. I was really happy with our corners, and our corner defense as well. It's been a great group of kids," commented Hutchinson. They have been so close and they've just had so much fun together and our goal coming into the year was to get back here and get into the championship game because we got shutout last year and didn't get here. It's a great finish - and we just took it one day at a time and to take the chance to end with a big season let alone a national championship -- I'm very happy for them, they've worked so hard to get it. Bloomsburg finished the year with a perfect record of 21-0, the team's 30th straight win dating back to last season. It is the third undefeated, untied team for Hutchinson in her 25-year career with the Huskies.
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