Box Score COLLEGEVILLE, Pa. – The No. 5 Franklin & Marshall field hockey team nearly overcame a two-goal deficit, fighting hard but falling short in a narrow 2-1 defeat by No. 6 Ursinus on Sunday afternoon in the Centennial Conference (CC) Title game. The Diplomats fell to 17-2 on the season, while the Bears (16-3) earned the conference's automatic bid in the upcoming NCAA Tournament with the victory.
F&M must wait to learn its NCAA fate until tomorrow at 10:30 a.m. when the field is announced. The press release will be made available on NCAA.com and can be accessed here.
Ursinus came out the gates strong and quickly captured the momentum of the match with a tally just seven minutes into action. The conference's scoring leader Megan Keenan collected a Bears' corner from the left side and buried the ball into the back of the cage for her 21st of the year and the early 1-0 advantage.
Just six minutes later, Ursinus struck again with a rebound goal to take the 2-0 lead, halfway through the opening stanza. With halftime just three minutes away, the Diplomats finally got on the board when a Maria Guarisco shot from the left of the circle was deflected in by Tamara Mills for the timely goal, cutting the deficit to one.
F&M came out of the break in complete control of possession, outshooting the Bears by a 5-0 margin in the opening 15 minutes of action. With just 17 minutes to go on the clock, the Diplomats looked to knot up the game when Guarisco collected a loose ball in the circle and fired a shot that made its way past the Ursinus keeper, however the Bears' Aliki Torrence was there for the defensive save.
The Diplomats pulled their goalie with three minutes remaining and still trailing by a 2-1 margin, but the Bears managed to keep the ball out of F&M's offensive zone and ran time out for the championship win.
The shot margin belonged to F&M at 15-8, including an 8-3 margin in the second half. Corners were tied up at 6-6, with Ursinus holding the 4-2 edge in the second. Guarisco paced the offense with six shots, followed by three from Cole.
Allie Morey (17-2) came up with a number of key stops to keep her team in the game, but was dealt the los after registering a pair of saves. Tournament MVP Daniel DeSpirito (16-3) was impressive, turning back eight shots on the afternoon.
