Bloomsburg Advances to NCAA Field Hockey Title Game With Win Over Shippensburg

SHIPPENSBURG - Freshman Jamie Vanartsdalen's (Philadelphia/Lower Moreland) goal at the 53:05 mark was the only score of the game lifting the Bloomsburg University Huskies past Shippensburg University, 1-0, Friday night in the NCAA Division II national field hockey semi-finals.

The Huskies, 19-4, will face UMass-Lowell on Sunday at 1 p.m. at Shippensburg University. The River Hawks defeated Stonehill College 2-1 in the day's first semi-final.

Vanartsdalen's goal was her 19th of the season and was one of just five shots on the night for the Huskies "I was real proud of the way the team played tonight," said Bloomsburg head coach Jan Hutchinson. "We've had an up and down season, but we played with a lot of heart and played a full 70 minutes, which we haven't done in the past against Shippensburg."

The Lady Raiders had the better of the early scoring opportunities with Kimberly Davies getting two shots on goal within as 30-second span. Her first shot at the 28 minute mark went wide, while her second shot was kick-saved by the Huskies' Tracey Hudak (Sweet Valley/Lake-Lehman).

Bloomsburg first scoring chance came with just under 25 minutes left in the half when Vanartsdalen had a breakaway opportunity which was broken up by the Lady Raiders goalie Nora Luchansky.

Shippensburg had two corners, back-to-back, with 16 minutes left in the opening half, but were denied each time. Then with 13:28 to play, Davies had another scoring chance but Hudak made the save, while on a corner a minute later, Casey Fritts had a shot with Hudak making another save.

With just over two minutes to play in the half, Hudak came up with two big saves on shots by Kristen Miller and Davies. Both shots came from directly in front of the goal.

In the second half of action, the Huskies got off its first two shots of the game, one from Vanartsdalen and the other from Kelly Trevisan (Lancaster/Manheim Twp). However, Luchansky stopped both shots for the Lady Raiders.

Shippensburg dominated play from the next 12 minutes getting four penalty corners. With 17:45 to play, Hudak made two diving saves on shots by the Lady Raiders keeping the game scoreless.

Following the flurry by Shippensburg, the Huskies took the ball right down the field. Kristi Ney brought the ball into the circle with Luchansky coming out to attempt a save. However, the ball was deflected towards Vanartsdalen who punched the ball into the goal past a diving Shippensburg player.

The Huskies then controlled play for much of the remainder of the game led by the strong play of midfielder Brittany Wilkins (Barto/Boyertown) and Trevisan. Shippensburg did get a penalty corner with less than a minute to play, however, the Huskies defense turned away the Lady Raiders sending Bloomsburg to the title game.

Bloomsburg will be aiming for its 13th NCAA title and fourth consecutive when it takes on UMass-Lowell Sunday. The Huskies last faced the River Hawks in 2003 in the NCAA title game and defeated them by a score of 4-1.