LEXINGTON, Va. - The No. 16 Washington and Lee University field hockey team, the top-seed in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference Tournament, took down #4 Roanoke College 3-0 and will advance to the championship match for the third consecutive season.
Seniors Peyton Tysinger (Norfolk, Va./ Norfolk Academy) and Tess Muneses (Howard County, Md./ Glenwood) set up each other in the first two quarters to hold a commanding 2-0 lead into the midway-point. The Generals (15-2) benefited from another goal after halftime. The Maroons could not overcome constant pressure laid on by W&L's attack and ended their season with a 12-7 record.
Two minutes into the semifinal contest, Munesses intercepted a Roanoke pass and brought the ball up the right sideline. Outside the hashed half-circle, the midfielder sent a cross to an open Tysinger on the back post. Freddie Tobeason (New York, N.Y./ Groton) occupied the Maroons' keeper in the center of the critical scoring area, just off the goal line, to free up her classmate. Munesses' pass, through heavy traffic, was powerful enough to land at Tysinger's stick for the easy tap-in.
The second goal came off a penalty corner set play from the weak-side. Tysinger inserted the ball up to Kailey Fitzgerald (Chevy Chase, Md./ Georgetown Visitation) in the center of the circle, Tysinger cut up into the middle of the scoring area, received a Fitzgerald pass and immediately sent the ball to a breaking Muneses. The reigning ODAC Player of the Year's shot had some bounce to it and the ball skipped just over the oppositions' sticks into the back of the goal.
Tobeason got her own goal with five minutes left on the clock in the third quarter. The first attempt, a Betty Boatwright (Washington, D.C./ Georgetown Visitation) shot redirected to the cage, was stopped by Madison Wingerter through a scrum in front of the goal. Freddie then controlled her own rebound and aimed the ball into the far-right corner, opposite of Roanoke's defense for the third goal of the night.
The defending ODAC champions controlled the ball from start to finish and consistently kept pressure on the Maroon defense which forced Wingerter to come up with several big stops in the second half.
The Generals put 21 shots on the board, eight of those were on target and Wingerter made five stops. Boatwright, Muneses and Tobeason all recorded four shots and Tysinger added three to pepper the play-by-play with scoring opportunities. Many of those shots were off penalty corners, WLU had a 7-4 advantage over RC.
Roanoke freed up their sticks up on six occasions, just one shot attempt made it past the defense for Abby Long (Kansas City, Mo. / Pembroke Hill) to record a stop. Jenny Lerner (Mount Pleasant, S.C. / Georgetown) came up with a big defensive save in the first quarter to prevent a loose ball from crossing the goal line after the Maroon's lone scoring opportunity in the opening 15 minutes.
Up next, the Generals will host the second-seeded No. 19 University of Lynchburg Hornets, who defeated No. 18 Shenandoah University 3-1 in the first semifinal game on Thursday evening.
The Blue and White broke the three-way tie for the top-seed between Lynchburg and Shenandoah on goal differentials, all three teams had a 7-1 ODAC record going into the postseason. LYN handed W&L their only loss on the conference slate, a 3-2 outcome on Shellenberger Field, on October 5.
On Thursday night, Lynchburg avenged its only conference loss, a 2-1 senior day defeat to Shenandoah in the Hill City, to play into the final game.
The past three championship pairings have featured the Generals and the Hornets of Lynchburg. W&L will have home field advantage for the second straight year and will look to hoist the trophy for the fourth time in program history. The Blue and White hope to repeat as champions after downing the Hornets 3-1 last season.
The 2022 ODAC Field Hockey Championship will take place in Lexington on W&L Turf Field at 1 p.m. on Saturday, November 5.
–Generalssports.com–
