Garden City, N.Y. -- Three unanswered goals by the #4 Stonehill College Skyhawks in the second half, followed by the game-winner in overtime, turned a 3-0 lead for the top-seeded Adelphi University field hockey team into a 4-3 (OT) defeat on Friday afternoon on Motamed Field.The Panthers' (14-5) bid to reach their first NE-10 championship game was thwarted by the late comeback from the Skyhawks (13-6), who advanced to their third straight NE-10 championship game with the victory.

After reigning NE-10 Player of the Year Erika Kelly missed a penalty stroke wide right of Amanda Gargiulo in the fifth minute, the Panthers struck 10 minutes later when Lena Pollich tallied her first goal of the contest off a feed from Olivia Nowokunski -- beating Stonehill keeper Sara Freedman to her right corner. After a Skyhawk timeout, the Panthers were back up the field on offense, and this time Molly Cuevas took an arching shot up from the top of the arc from a Kristen Bagley pass, beating the defense and giving the Brown and Gold a 2-0 lead.

Pollich scored again for the Panthers less than three minutes later to run the lead to 3-0, taking a feed from Cuevas into the cage, and that's how the score remained for the duration of the first half. Adelphi dominated the opening half on offense, outshooting the Skyhawks by an 11-6 margin.

However, in the second half, the tables turned, and the Skyhawks took the opening six shots of the period before Kelly ensured they got on the board, beating Gargiulo to her vacated right to break up the shutout. Kelly had a hand in all three goals the Skyhawks tallied in the second half, as she dished off to Kacie Smith in the 61st minute, and Smith duly scored to make it a one goal contest. With less than five minutes remaining, Kelly took things into her own hands, rifling a shot from the top of the arc that tied things up at 3-3.

In the overtime period, and with the Panthers a man down due to a late yellow card in the second half, Kelly was again awarded a penalty stroke just 1:33 in. However, her shot rang off the crossbar and the game remained tied, but the Skyhawks would not be denied -- less than two minutes later, Shea Healy took a pass from Sara Morse into the back of the cage to send the Skyhawks into their third consecutive NE-10 championship game.

The Panthers will await their fate to see if they've earned a place in the NCAA Division II Field Hockey Championships, as the selection show will air live on ncaa.com at 1 pm on Monday, November 9.
 

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About Adelphi Athletics
Adelphi University joined the Northeast-10 Conference in the fall of 2009 and in the past six seasons has collected 15 regular season conference titles, 19 tournament championships, 27 individual crowns and captured the Northeast-10 President's Cup twice (2013 and 2014), while winning five NCAA Division II National Championships.

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