CARLISLE, Pa. – The Haverford College Field Hockey team suffered a 4-3 double overtime loss to Dickinson College on Wednesday afternoon in the first round of the Centennial Conference Tournament, falling after playing its third overtime contest in a row. Haverford scored the first three goals of the contest only to see the Red Devils respond with four unanswered on their home turf. Elena Veale scored twice for the Fords. Stephanie Terrell had the opening goal of the contest for the visitors. Haverford completes the 2016 season with a 10-8 record while Dickinson improves to 12-6 and will face Ursinus in the Centennial Conference semifinals on Saturday in Collegeville, Pa.
The Fords came out firing on all cylinders, making notches on the scoreboard early and often in the opening minutes of play. After drawing the second of two consecutive penalty corners in the 11th minute, Stephanie Terrell fired her second goal of the season off a corner play, with assists coming from Nicole Witte and the inputter Casey Wakai.
Haverford withstood some tense moments as Merritt Davis hit the post with a shot in the 13th minute and Chelsea Kramer fired wide. Haverford drew three penalty corners from the 19th through the 21st minutes of play and again drew a penalty corner attempt in the 23rd minute. The attempt led to an unassisted goal from Elena Veale, as the junior doubled the lead for the visitors to 2-0 after dribbling through the defense and hammering one home for her sixth of the season. Veale scored in the 33rd minute, again unassisted, dribbling into the circle and again besting the goalkeeper Bancroft for a 3-0 Haverford advantage and her seventh of the 2016 campaign.
Dickinson got one back with 59 seconds left in the half, as Chelsea Kramer found the back of the cage past Rette to give Dickinson some momentum going into the break. Dickinson held a 9-5 shot advantage at the break and corners were tied at six apiece.
Dickinson added a goal in the 48th minute to cut the lead to just 3-2 in favor of the Fords. Julia Murphy was able to get into the circle and fire past Rette, but the Fords clung to the one-goal advantage, determined to hold on long enough to escape with a victory. After a 62nd minute corner, Lily Mott took a pass from Taylor Bednar to complete the Dickinson comeback at 3-3, sending both teams into preperation for a potential overtime period.
The Fords had chances in the final minutes of regulation, drawing corners in the 65th and 66th minute, but Terrell and Veale each had shots blocked.
In the first overtime, Haverford withstood a barrage of shots from Dickinson as Davis and Catherine Perlmutter saw Rette deny their scoring chances in the seven-on-seven portion of the contes. Wakai broke through the defense in the 84th minute, as the Fords had a two-on-one chance, but her shot went wide, allowing the first overtime to end scoreless.
In the second overtime, Dickinson drew an early corner, but Amber Dey shot wide. Haverford had two corner chances, but Terrell and Leslie each had their shots saved by Meeder, who improved to 6-0 in heroic fashion despite limited action.
Following the corner play, Dickinson got the ball going the opposite way and was able to convert past the valiant defense of the Fords, who were forced to make near-constant substitutions in the final frame to keep fresh legs in the contest. Bednar sent Dickinson to the semifinals with a 93rd minute goal.
Terrell and Veale each had four shots to lead the Fords while Wakai and Leslie added two. Rette had 11 saves for the Fords. For Dickinson, Perlmutter had eight shots while Chelsea Kramer tallied six. Heather Meeder played the final 57:57 between the pipes and made six saves to pick up the win after coming in at halftime in relief of Freddie Bancroft.
The Fords finish the 2016 campaign with ten wins for the sixth time in seven seasons. This was the Fords' first loss in the first round of the Centennial Conference tournament. The squad will now await the selections for All-Centennial Conference and All-Region, which will be announced later this month.