COLLEGEVILLE, Pa. – In the end, only one team finishes their season with a win while all the others go home in defeat. Such as it was for the Haverford College field hockey team Saturday afternoon as the Fords fell to host and 3rd-ranked Ursinus College, 10-2, in a semifinal game of the Centennial Conference postseason tournament.
The Fords (9-10) clawed their way back into the game against the Bears (17-2) with a goal from Juliana Morgan-Trostle just 68 seconds into the second half. That score pulled the Fords within three at 5-2 with a whole half yet to play.
Ursinus reeled off five unanswered goals, however, to cement the win and move on to the conference final where they'll play No. 17 Johns Hopkins, 4-3 winners over No. 14 Gettysburg in the other semifinal, Sunday afternoon at 1 p.m.
Ursinus started the game like they had just been disturbed from a winter hibernation, grumpy and firing off the first six shots of the game then later scoring three times in a seven minute span for a 3-0 lead over the Fords by the 20-minute mark.
Haverford's Bridget Gibbons briefly turned the tide in favor of the visitors in the 23rd, though, putting a rebound into the back of the goal past the Bears' Erica Scott who had stopped Josie Ferri's shot.
Ursinus answered quickly scoring a minute later to build the lead back to three at 4-1, then added a fifth late in the opening 35 minutes setting up the second half action kicked off by Morgan-Trostle's goal.
Ursinus tallied a total of 44 shots and put 30 on goal in the victory. Haverford goalie Maggie Cronin made six saves in the first half before giving way to teammate Sydney Hyder who started the second half and finished with 14 saves.
The Fords ended with eight shots and scored two of the three times their shots were on goal.
The defeat ends the Fords' 2009 season and though premature for the hopes of the team, the campaign was a highly successful one as Haverford can claim to their credit a regular-season win over a ranked Hopkins squad along with not only its first Centennial tournament appearance but also the first league playoff win with Wednesday night's exciting 1-0 quarterfinal victory over Franklin & Marshall under the lights at Swan Field.
