Gaffney, S.C. - In the first contest of the 2024 campaign, the Adelphi University field hockey team fell in a defensive overtime battle against Limestone University, ending 1-0 in the Palmetto State. 

The opening 15 minutes saw the Panthers' look to find a rhythm offensively, accumulating a couple penalty corners in the Saints' zone. Three shots were also generated by Emiline Biggin, Amanda Lee, and newcomer Lana Mignon de Wet. 

Defense began to anchor down in the second quarter, as freshman Adelphi goalie Tayla Szmak stopped two coming her way. On the other side, Limestone's Koprivova saw double that amount, giving her five saves at the halftime buzzer. 

The Brown and Gold also had another pair of penalty corners taken by Ali Nagy, but the score remained deadlocked after half an hour of play. 

In the second half, it was the Blue and White coming out hot on the offensive end, firing off the first three. Once again though, the 'Cats struggled to get a clean look at the net with two of their four attempts getting blocked. Despite the Saints' getting their first two penalty corner chances in the game, the goal line stood strong for the visitors. 

Limestone began to control the offensive pace of the game in the final 10 minutes of the game. Even with the defense standing tall, the home team was able to get three shots rattled off in a 30 second span. With neither team threatening too heavily in the final five minutes, the game was headed to overtime. 

With only ten minutes in the extra frames, the pace began to accelerate. It was the hosts who had another dominating period, shooting all five shots, two of which were on goal. The buzzer sounded with still no score on the board, so another period was set to begin before a potential shootout. 

It didn't take long for Limestone to pick up right where they left off. With just over a minute played in overtime number two, a reset of play was batted into the middle near the penalty stroke line, where the Saints' Felicitas Herrero Martel was waiting with a high swing past Szmak for the lone score and game-winner. 

Head Coach Jess Mulhern and the Panthers will be back in action on Sunday, Sept. 8 when they travel for the second leg of their South Carolina trip against Newberry College. Game action is set to get underway at 12 noon.