Huskies Advance to NCAA Title Game

LOWELL, MA--Jamie Vanartsdalen (Huntingdon Valley/Lower Moreland) scored once and added one assist to lead the Bloomsburg University field hockey team to a 4-3 win over Indiana, Pa (IUP) on Friday in the NCAA Division II semi-finals played in Lowell, MA.

Jamie Vanartsdalen

The win puts the Huskies, 20-4, into the NCAA Division II title game on Sunday at 1 p.m. against the winner of the UMass-Lowell (UML)/Bentley game to be played later on Friday. The win was the first of the year for the Huskies over the Crimson Hawks and prevented IUP from being the first team ever to beat the Huskies four times in one season.

"I'm very happy for the team," said coach Jan Hutchinson. "They were determined to come up here (Lowell) and get a win today. Overall, we played very well and put good pressure on IUP throughout the game with our shots. While things got a bit hairy at the end, we were able hang on and get the win."

The teams went back and forth in the early going before the Huskies started putting pressure on the IUP goalie, Lydia Dolly, who came up with a glove and stick save among her three first half saves.

Ashley Heckard

Bloomsburg got on the board in the 27th minute when Vanartsdalen, the PSAC Field Hockey Athlete of the Year and the leading scorer in Division II, rebounded a shot from Chelsea Due (Pen Argyl/Pen Argyl) past Dolly for a 1-0 lead.

The Huskies started the second half by quickly getting its second goal of the just 1:26 into the period when senior Ashley Heckard (Millerstown/Greenwood) scored on a Vanartsdalen assist. Then, less than a minute later, Bloomsburg made it 3-0 when Samantha Kropa (Tunkhannock/Lackawanna Trail) scored unassisted for a 3-0 advantage.

Bloomsburg made it 4-0 in the 48th minute when Liz Macready (Denver/Cocalico) scored with Chelsea Due getting credit for the assist.

IUP finally broke through when Liz Martini scored on a penalty stroke 56:16 into the game and made it a 4-2 game 10 minutes later when Sylvia Guerrieri got an unassisted goal. The Crimson Hawks, who end the season at 17-4, scored with no time on the clock to make the final, 4-3, sending Bloomsburg to the title game.

The goal for Vanartsdalen was the 33rd of the season for the junior and tied her with Terry Voit of Longwood for the Division II record most goals in season. Voit set the mark in 1975. The assist by Vanartsdalen was the 19th of the season, which set a school single-season record. Vanartsdalen has already set the Division II and Bloomsburg record for most points in a season, the Bloomsburg record for most points and assists in a career; and the Bloomsburg record for most goals in a season.

While winning the semi-finals is nice, Hutchinson knows her team can't be happy with this victory alone.

"We remember winning in the semi-finals in 2005 at Shippensburg, then losing in the finals to UMass-Lowell," Hutchinson said. "We will spend Saturday getting refocused about what we are here for and what we need to do to win."

Bloomsburg will be playing for the 14th national title in school history on Sunday. Overall, Bloomsburg has won four of the last five NCAA Division II titles with 10 of the titles coming in Division II.

The Huskies have experience against both the River Hawks of Lowell and the Bentley College Falcons. Bloomsburg beat Bentley last year in Florida for the NCAA title and lost to UML in the 2005 finals at Shippensburg.