Bloomsburg Field Hockey Falls in NCAA Semi-Finals

LOUISVILLE, KY—The Bloomsburg University field hockey team saw its streak of four consecutive NCAA Division II championships come to an end on Thursday with a 1-0 loss to Shippensburg in the national semi-finals. The game was played at Trager Stadium at the University of Louisville as part of the NCAA Division II Sports Festival.

The Lady Raiders controlled play early in the game getting three penalty corners in the first 15 minutes of action, but could not convert. Bloomsburg changed field position and controlled the flow of play for the next few minutes before the Lady Raiders strung together four more penalty corners over a two minute stretch with 12 minutes left to go in the half. Shippensburg’s best chance to score came at the 24:32 mark when Taylor Jones hit the post on a shot following the penalty corner.

Overall in the first 35 minutes of action the Lady Raiders held a 10-1 edge in penalty corners and 9-1 edge in shots on goal.

In the second half played was contained to the middle third of the field with neither team generating many offensive pushes. The Huskies best chance to score came about 10 minutes into the half when Bloomsburg had back to back penalty corner chances, but managed just one shot by Jenna DiSabatino (Mountain Top, Crestwood)that was blocked.

The Lady Raiders then picked up a corner with just over 11 minutes to play in the game. On the play, Taylor Jones fed Sam Langone who scored what would prove to be the game-winning goal.
Bloomsburg had one last chance to tie the game getting back to back penalty corners chances with about five minutes to play. But on the first the play was broken up, while on the second Amber Aulenbach's (Fleetwood, Oley Valley) blast from the top of the circle went wide left.

From there Shippensburg was able to control the ball and ran out the clock without the Huskies getting another shot off.

Bloomsburg coach Nikki Rhoads was disappointed with the loss, but not with how the team played.
“It was a great game between two great teams, “ said Rhoads. “We played hard as a team, but just were not able to finish. On our last two corners we tried some different options and I really thought the shot by Amber (Aulenbach) was going in. I am very proud though of this team and how they battled.”

Bloomsburg finishes the season with a record of 19-3. Shippensburg, 21-1, will play UMass-Lowell on Saturday at 1:30 p.m. for the national championship.