Box Score
Garden City, N.Y. - The fourth-seeded Adelphi University field hockey team rode the strength of a
Molly Cuevas hat trick to defeat fifth-seeded Southern Connecticut 4-3 in Northeast-10 Conference Tournament action on Motamed Field on Wednesday. In their first-ever home playoff game, the Panthers rattled off three second half goals to outlast the Owls and move on to the NE-10 Semifinals for the first time since 2010. Adelphi, now 8-11 overall, will face top-seeded Merrimack on the Warriors' home turf on Saturday at 2 p.m. Southern Connecticut finishes the season with a record of 8-10.
After being held to no points over the last four regular season games, the reigning NE-10 Rookie of the Year exploded for three goals, including the eventual game-winner in the 63rd minute. The contest marks the first multiple-goal performance of Cuevas' career, and four goals matches Adelphi's season-high single game total.
Cuevas got Adelphi on the board in the 26th minute, disrupting the flow of the game that was largely dominated by the Owls in the early going. Southern Connecticut outshot the Panthers 15-7 in the first half, but Cuevas struck first with a quick shot off a pass from
Kristen Bagley.
The 1-0 score would hold up well into the second half, but the league's leading scorer, Sarah Cebry, knotted the game at 1-1 at the 44:45 mark when she pushed the ball past Adelphi goalie
Kristine Puzio on the right side. Less than four minutes later, Adelphi reclaimed the lead on a crafty lofted shot by
Briana Rubenstein from 10 yards out that
Erin Grekin redirected just over the reach of opposing goalie Audrey Dolloff.
Cuevas extended the lead in the 56th minute, depositing a flip shot to convert a pass from
Alyssa Conklin, but Lauren Anderson answered back just 53 seconds later by flushing her own rebound to make it a 3-2 game. Not to be outdone, Cuevas recorded her third marker of the game and put Adelphi up 4-2 with just over seven and a half minutes to play.
The goal would prove to be the deciding factor, as Bailey McGuinnis chipped in a rebound goal in front of a crowded net at the 68:36 mark to make it a one-goal affair. The Panther defense buckled down in the final minutes, however, and hung on long enough to preserve the 4-3 final score.
Puzio made 14 saves in the win, giving her double-digit saves in four of the last five contests. Dolloff stopped nine shots in her team's season finale.
The Northeast-10 Conference will be broadcasting the championship final live at northeast10.org and northeast10.tv Sunday at 12 p.m. The Conference will also be providing live updates of all conference championship games on their Twitter feed (@TheNortheast10).
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