Field Hockey
Commonwealth Conference Semifinals
Alvernia 5, #15 Lebanon Valley 3

Box Score

ANNVILLE, Pa. - Four unanswered goals in the second half lifted Alvernia into its first-ever Commonwealth Conference championship game, stunning #15 Lebanon Valley 5-3 in the CC semifinals.

The third-seeded Crusaders (13-6) put together a huge second half, outshooting LVC 10-8 and drawing 10 corners to prevent the Dutchmen (14-5) from advancing to the CC final for the eighth straight year. Alvernia advances to face top-seeded Messiah on Saturday.

Jocelyn Novak scored twice in 18 seconds to put LVC up 2-1 in the first half, but Alvernia used a combination of strong penalty corner play and counter-attack speed to score four straight in the second half, with two coming from Erin Solley.

Erin Wunsch made 10 saves to win it for Alvernia; Christine Poletti had four stops for LVC, with Bridget Monighan making a defensive save.

Despite the momentum being firmly in LVC's favor early on, Miranda Peto caught a breakaway and scored 10:14 into the game to give Alvernia a quick 1-0 lead.

LVC responded with two quick goals from Novak, first as the senior scored off Cox's corner shot at 33:16. Off the restart, Novak made a run to the circle and was aggressively taken out by Wunsch, drawing a penalty stroke that she converted just 18 seconds after her first score, taking her NCAA-best career total to 137 goals.

Mandi Albright added a goal 3:53 into the second half off a tight angle to pad LVC's lead at 3-1, but things fell apart after that. Sam Landis scored on a corner from Katy Eby at 43:38, and Solley scored her first on a busted corner six minutes later to tie the game 3-3.

Eby put Alvernia ahead at 54:13, pushing forward with Lauren Guido, and Solley iced the game with just over four minutes remaining when she scored on a penalty corner thanks to Landis.

The game ended 10-on-10 after offsetting yellow cards on Landis and Lauren Brumbach with 3:20 remaining. LVC led 16-12 on both shots and corners.