Division II Quarter-Finals: East Stroudsburg Leave It Late, IUP Edge Bloomsburg, Pace See Off Bentley
One minute. That’s all that stood between East Stroudsburg and extra time, and maybe a season ending a week early.
The Warriors were locked at 1-1 with West Chester in Tuesday’s PSAC quarter-final at Whitenight Field when freshman Emily Dobrowolski got the faintest of touches to a Piper Patrick shot. The ball looped high over goalkeeper Erin O’Brien’s shoulder and in. Game over, 2-1, with just over a minute left on the clock.
West Chester had led. Veerle Hersman converted a penalty corner late in the first quarter, her tenth goal of the season, and the Golden Rams took that lead into half-time. It lasted about four minutes of the second half. Rylie McGrath, East Stroudsburg’s leading scorer, levelled it in the 34th minute for her 13th of the year, Lisa Pasman with the assist. From there it was a grind until Dobrowolski’s deflection broke it.
East Stroudsburg are 15-4 now, and the reward is the one everyone in Division II wants to see. They face No. 1 Kutztown, 17-1, in Friday’s PSAC semi-final at Shippensburg. West Chester finish 10-8 and have to wait for Sunday night’s Division II selection show to find out if their season carries on.
IUP hold their nerve at home
The other PSAC quarter-final went the same way, 2-1, with No. 4 IUP getting past No. 5 Bloomsburg at Miller Stadium. It was IUP’s first home postseason game since 2012, and they made it count, backing up the 1-0 regular-season win over the Huskies from October.
IUP’s prize is the other semi-final on Friday: top seed Shippensburg, 14-2, at noon ET, with the Raiders hosting the rest of the tournament. That’s a rematch of Friday’s regular-season finale, which Shippensburg won 2-0. IUP will fancy their chances more this time. They took Shippensburg to double overtime earlier in the season, and this is the postseason now.
For our money, the PSAC is producing the best hockey in Division II right now. Kutztown against East Stroudsburg on Friday is the pick of the semi-finals anywhere in the country. The final is Sunday at noon ET.
Rook’s double sends Pace through
Over in the Northeast-10, Pace are through to the semi-finals after a 3-1 win over Bentley at home in Pleasantville. And it took a sophomore to settle it.
Carlotta Oschmann put Pace ahead from a penalty stroke after a scoreless first quarter, but Bentley hit straight back. Nicole Hartz equalised inside five minutes, finishing off a penalty-corner routine from Emily Stagnone’s insert. Then Feline Rook took over. The Dutch sophomore scored 4:45 into the third quarter and again 3:12 into the fourth, and that was that.
Bentley goalkeeper Annie Lorenz did everything she could. Sixteen saves, a career high, ten of them in the first half. But Pace kept coming, and Bentley finish their season 8-11.
Pace, 13-6, now travel to No. 1 Saint Anselm for Friday’s semi-final at 4 p.m. ET. Saint Anselm shared the regular-season title with Assumption, both finishing 8-1, and they took the top seed on the head-to-head tie-break. It’s a proper test for Pace.
Still to come
Four quarter-finals finished too late on Tuesday night for the results to be confirmed by the time this went to press: Assumption against Southern New Hampshire and Adelphi against American International in the NE10, plus Converse against Wingate and Lander against Coker in the South Atlantic. Their winners feed Friday’s semi-finals, with Newberry and Belmont Abbey waiting in the SAC.
The East Coast Conference goes today instead. Top seed Mercy host D’Youville at 1 p.m. ET and Roberts Wesleyan host Dominican of New York at 6 p.m. ET, with the final on Saturday.
Everything funnels into Sunday night: the Division II selection show at 8 p.m. ET on NCAA.com, when the eight-team national bracket is revealed and the road to the championship in Kansas City starts for real.
