NCAA Division III Field Hockey Semifinal

 

Lydanne Leads Middlebury To 3-0 Victory

Over Messiah To Set Up Rematch

 

WESTFIELD, Mass. - Ashley Lydanne had two goals and an assist to lead the Middlebury College Panthers to a 3-0 victory over the Messiah College Falcons in the second semifinal of the NCAA Division III Field Hockey Championship in Westfield, Massachusetts, on Nov. 19.

 

Middelbury will play Salisbury University in the championship game on Saturday, Nov. 20 at 3:00 p.m. in a rematch on last year’s final.

 

Middlebury took the lead with just over one minute to play in the first half and never relinquished it. Middlebury junior midfielder Allison Smith received a penalty corner and made a hard pass to the near post where Lyddane was able to redirect the ball into the goal to give the Panthers a 1-0 halftime lead.

 

Middlebury extended the lead to 2-0 when another Allison Smith shot rebounded off of Messiah goalkeeper Erica Nelson, which went to Lydanne who slid the ball over to freshman midfielder Nina Daugherty, who tucked the ball into the net at the 20:12 mark of the second half.

 

Lydanne scored her second goal of the night with 12:17 remaining in a wild scramble in front of the Messiah cage. Lydanne’s first attempt was stopped by a diving save from Messiah midfielder Rebecca DiLullo, but the rebound fell right back to Lydanne, who took advantage of the second chance to make the score 3-0.

 

“I can’t believe the outcome of the game,” Lydanne said. “Everything fell into place when we got into our offense.”

 

Messiah took the early control of the game, earning six penalty corners in the first ten minutes. However, the Middlebury defense was able to turn each corner away, bottling up Messiah’s Danae Chambers and Aftan Fisher, who were first and fifth in NCAA Division III scoring, respectively.

 

Middlebury head coach Katharine DeLorenzo credited Blair Hewes as a key in keeping Chambers in check. “Hewes was a perfect matchup for us. She had the speed to stay with Chambers. “She’s not a starter, but we use her in situations like this. She’s won a bunch of games this year for us.”

 

“We were able to maintain our composure in the first half,” Lydanne said. “We knew they were a very strong team and we started the game back on our heels. In the first half they clearly outshot us, but the second half was more even.”

 

Messiah had the first solid scoring chance of the game when junior Jenna Scwind had a shot from 12 yards out kicked away by Middlebury goalkeeper Meghan McGillen. Messiah had another solid scoring opportunity when Chambers, who is the all-time leading scorer in Division III, had a point-blank chance turned away by McGillen. The Panther defense failed to clear the rebound, with the clear going right to Messiah’s Lindsey Hunter, but McGillen was able to kick away the second chance.

 

Messiah controlled the first half, having a 10-2 advantage in shots at halftime. Messiah head coach Jan Trapp said after the game, “I think our kids played really well. We shot the lights out but their keeper played a very good game and we hit a couple posts in the first half. We certainly gave a great effort and didn’t leave anything on the field.”

 

Middlebury’s victory sets up a rematch of last year’s championship game against Salisbury, which the Sea Gulls won 4-1. The game is set for a 3 p.m. start Saturday.

 

DeLorenzo said about tomorrow’s matchup, “This is a different team than last year. It’s the same two teams, but different names on the roster. We’re just glad to be playing such a quality opponent tomorrow.”