Jays nab No. 3 seed in Centennial Tournament

In double overtime, the Women's Soccer team defeated Gettysburg 3-2 on Tuesday to end their regular season on a winning note.

With the victory, the Jays clinched the No. 3 seed in the Centennial Conference Tournament. They will face Franklin & Marshall on Saturday.

In their win over the Gettysburg Bullets, the Jays jumped to a 1-0 lead early in the game behind a goal by freshman forward Meg McIntosh.

Senior Jill Minger and sophomore Sandro Lebo recorded assists on the score.

Just minutes later, however, Gettysburg knotted the score at 1-1 when senior goalkeeper Shannon O'Malley was unable to stop Liz Wesolowski's shot. The half ended with the score 1-1.

In the second half, the Bullets came out strong. In the ninth minute of the half, they took the lead by scoring on a rebound. But they committed the demoralizing error of scoring in their own goal in the 63rd minute to squander their own lead.

The Gettysburg miscue forced overtime as regulation ended with the two teams locked in a 2-2 tie.

In the second overtime period, McIntosh scored her second goal of the game to give the Jays the win.

The win gave the Blue Jays regular season record of 15-5-2. They also secured a 7-2-1 Centennial Conference record for the year.

Earlier in the week, the Jays fought to a tie against Franklin & Marshall, but earned a berth into the Centennial Conference Tournament anyway.

The contest marked Hopkins' final home game of the season.

In the game, Franklin & Marshall player Heather Rice commenced the scoring in the 22nd minute of the first half off of a free kick. The Lady Jays had a defensive wall set up, but the shot deflected off of it and went to the left catching senior goalkeeper Shannon O'Malley offguard, who went right.

Incidentally, Franklin & Marshall's goal came from their top scorer, Heather Rice. She was only able to put the ball in the net off of this free kick thanks to the defensive efforts of sophomore Sandra Lebo.

Lebo was assigned to Mark Rice and did not allow her to get a shot off at all.

Senior Liz Brudnicki remarked, "Sandra completely shut down F&M's top player. She played phenomenal defense. Her efforts were key to keeping the scoring down."

Senior Captain Yquem Roman stated, "We really dominated in the first half of the game. We had the ball at their defensive end for almost the whole time. We just had too many unlucky opportunities and were not able to put the ball in the net in that first half."

Sophomore Kathleen Turley was finally able to tie up the game by sending a zinger into the left corner of the net in the 84th minute of regulation.

Senior Captain Lauren Hanlon stated, "We have played Franklin & Marshall in the past, and they were not as good then as they performed in this game. They gave us a much more competitive game than we expected."

Senior goalkeeper Shannon O'Malley made three saves for the Jays. Offensively, Hopkins dominated with a 14-8 lead in shots and a 4-1 advantage on corner kicks.

To her credit, The Franklin & Marshall goalie, Melissa Ruff, made six saves.

Turley's goal once again proved the prowess of the team's underclassmen. This was her seventh goal of the season.

Through 17 games, freshmen and sophomores have combined for 30 of the team's 38 goals, 10 of the team's 26 assists and 73 of the team's 102 points. In addition, six of the team's seven top scorers are either freshmen or sophomores.

The strength of these players portends a successful future for the Lady Jays.

In addition, the Jays were able to hold off the scoring efforts of F&M despite the fact that they were missing a number of starters to injury.

Roman said, "There were a number of people out due to injury. We plan to rest them in our Tuesday game against Gettysburg, as well, so that they will be able to play up to their fullest potential in the conference tournament."

Now, the Jays will focus their efforts on defeating Franklin & Marshall on Saturday at 2:00 p.m. If they are victorious, they will advance to the Championship game that will be held on Sunday at 1:00 p.m.