Oct. 19, 2008

Box Score

Boone, N.C. - The Pacific field hockey team enjoyed their trip to Boone, N.C. as the Tigers completed a sweep of the three-game stretch with a 3-2 victory over Longwood on Sunday, Oct. 19.

The victory was Pacific's fourth in a row and moved the Tigers to 5-9 on the season and 4-1 in NorPac Conference play. Longwood, meanwhile, fell to 7-9 overall and 3-3 in conference action.

The Tigers scratched the scoreboard first in their battle with the Lancers as junior Katy McDonough (Ventura, Calif.) fielded a pass from senior Erica Nestle (San Jose, Calif.) then weaved through the Longwood defense and cracked a shot from the left side at the 11:45 mark. McDonough's shot resulted in her fifth goal of the season, vaulting her into the team lead.

The score remained 1-0 through the end of the first period as the Tigers' defense held off several furious Longwood charges. Pacific was out shot 11-3 in the opening half and trailed penalty corner chances 8-1.

Longwood finally broke through to tie the game just under five minutes into the second half and Jessica Mantel threaded a pass from Melissa Strickland past Pacific senior keeper Kelly Miller (Monterey, Calif.).

Just over two minutes later at 41:57, the Lancers benefited from a penalty stroke call as Carla Binnewies converted the stroke to give Longwood a 2-1 edge.

The energy of falling behind engulfed Pacific and the result took all of 44 seconds. Pacific sophomore Kelly Perkins (Gilroy, Calif.) nabbed pass from McDonough and scorched it past the Longwood goalkeeper, Erin West, near the post to tie the game at 42:41.

The battle remained tied at 2-2 until the closing minutes when the Tigers once again turned to McDonough to lead the offensive charge. Katy responded by drawing in the defense and finding Nestle in front of the pack. Nestle one-timed a shot past West to push Pacific to a 3-2 lead with just over three minutes remaining.

Pacific's strong defense did the rest, holding Longwood at bay down the stretch to push the Tigers to their fourth straight win. The four-game winning streak is the longest for Pacific since 2006, when Pacific tallied four consecutive wins from Oct. 7 - 15 (defeating Radford, Davidson, Longwood and Appalachian State, the same four teams the Tigers have defeated over the past eight days).

The final stats for Sunday's game saw Longwood finish with a 17-9 advantage on shots and a 10-3 edge in penalty corners.

The Tigers conclude their regular season on Sunday, Oct. 26 by hosting Stanford at 3 p.m. in Brookside Field