By: Jennifer Jones
Director of Sports Information
jonesj@juniata.edu • juniatasports.net
DALLAS, Pa. – Juniata College field hockey rebounded from an early goal and pulled away with the 3-1 win over Misericordia Friday afternoon on the road. The Eagles improved to 3-0 with the win, while Misericordia dropped to 0-3 on the year.
"I thought it was a really great team effort," said head coach Caroline Gillich. "Defense really held down the fort. Kelsey Leibelsperger has come up big for us in the beginning of the year, holding down defense and really preventing a lot of scoring opportunities from occurring by being an anchor."
Junior Julianne Jones (Middleburg, Pa./Midd-West) has also excelled this season. She earned a career-high six saves in the win after spending over 39 scoreless minutes in the cage. Jones came in with under 16 minutes to play in the first half and kept the Cougars from scoring while Juniata racked up two goals to secure the win.
After an early penalty corner in the second minute of competition led to a Cougar goal, senior Emma Dahmus (Hummelstown, Pa./Lower Dauphin) tied it up nine minutes later on a pass from sophomore Sarah Bilheimer (Bethlehem, Pa./Freedom). The Eagles then shut Misericordia down and went on the offensive.
Sophomore Katie Landis (Wyomissing, Pa./Wyomissing) connected on a pass from freshman Elise Onjack (Bangor, Pa./Bangor Area) after a corner for the eventual gamewinner that put Juniata up 2-1 with less than 10 minutes to go in the first half.
Both teams continued to battle in the second half, swapping penalty corners and coming up empty. After back-to-back saves by Jones in the 42nd minute, the Cougars earned a penalty stroke. Jones dug deep and swatted it away to preserve the lead. This was all the spark the offense needed.
They went on the attack and earned a corner. Onjack got a shot off in the circle, but it was saved by Cougar keeper Angela Pasquini. Fortunately, sophomore Sarah Bilheimer (Bethlehem, Pa./Freedom) laid ready and took the rebound to the back of the cage for her second goal of the year.
Both teams finished the match even on shots, at 16, and saves at seven, respectively. Juniata earned more penalty corners and had more shots on goal.
The Eagles stay in Dallas, Pa. as they face King's College (Pa.) in a neutral site contest on Saturday, Sept. 7 at 1 p.m. This will be the third meeting between the two programs since first competing in 2009. Juniata leads the all-time series 2-0.
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