Box Score LANCASTER, Pa. – No. 7 Franklin & Marshall fell 2-0 to No. 17 Ursinus in the Centennial Conference (CC) Field Hockey Championship Sunday afternoon. The Bears (14-5) earned the CC's automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament, while the Diplomats (17-2) must wait to see if they receive an at-large bid. The NCAA is expected to release the bracket later this evening.
The game was a tale of two halves with the Diplomats dominating in the first and the Bears taking control in the final stanza. F&M fired off six shots in the first while limiting Ursinus to just two as majority of the action was played on the Bears' end of the field.
The Diplomats a had great chance of getting on the board at the 19-minute mark when Bethany Vincent had a good shot that popped over the goalie, but Aliki Torrence was there for the Bears with a big defensive save.
Ursinus threaten in the 26th minute with a high shot by Devin Brakel, but Avery Koep made a glove save on her stick side to keep the game deadlocked at 0-0.
The Bears flipped the script in the second, playing primarily in F&M's circle and outshooting the Diplomats 14-4 while picking up 14 corners to F&M's eight in the final frame.
Ursinus put the first score on the board in the 64th minute when Annie Kopera stole the ball inside the circle, dribbled to within yards of the cage and found Brakel who shot past Koep for a 1-0 Ursinus lead.
Amber Steigerwalt made in 2-0 a little over a minute later when she one-timed a Jenna Stover shot that was saved and went back into play.
The Diplomats pulled their goalie after the score to get an extra offensive player, but were unable to get off a shot the remainder of the contest.
Koep turned away four shots in the loss while Danielle DeSpirito picked up the win with four saves of her own.
F&M will find out its NCAA Tournament path following tonight's release of the NCAA brackets. The exact time of the release has yet to be posted by the NCAA. Check back to GoDiplomats.com for updates concerning F&M's postseason schedule.
