STOCKTON, Calif. – The 1-seed UAlbany field hockey team earned a 3-0 shutout victory over 4-seed UC Davis to move on to the America East Tournament semifinal round.
UAlbany (14-5) outshot UC Davis (5-13) 19-6 and used a pair of second half goals to break away and take the game. With the win, UAlbany earned its sixth consecutive America East Tournament victory.
“Our team battled a tough UC Davis team today, I was proud of our composure and willingness to battle,” said UAlbany head coach Phil Sykes. “It felt like 85 degrees out there and unusual for a conference tournament.”
Rachel Billig scored the game-winning goal off a rebound attempt in the 11th minute, with Paula Heuser and Dana Bozek adding second half scores. Maxi Primus stopped all six UC Davis shots for the shutout win.
For UC Davis, Eden Borsack had a team-best two shots, each on goal. Beth Lee had 10 saves in the defeat in goal.
After substituting in, Billig got a pass from Heuser and was one-on-one with the keeper. Her first shot was saved, but she converted the second shot off the rebound to put UAlbany up 1-0 in the 11th minute.
Later in the first half, UAlbany kept drawing penalty corners. Heuser sent one towards the cage in the 27th minute, being saved, while a later attempt by Viola Von der Mühlen on a tip-in attempt missed wide.
UAlbany kept peppering at the goal in the final minutes with each Kelsey Briddell and Bozek sending shots wide. UAlbany took a 1-0 lead into halftime.
In minute 43, a penalty corner was passed back and forth in the circle. Bottino passed off to Heuser for the swing and score inside the post for a 2-0 UAlbany advantage.
UC Davis got its first penalty corner in the 56th minute, seeing Lauren Copeland send a shot straight away, with Primus making the kick save. UAlbany countered as Molly Mariano got close to the keeper, shooting and being stopped by the goalie, then missing wide off the rebound.
Bozek added the final goal after a missed penalty corner, taking the ball into the circle and firing backhand for a shot and score to make it 3-0 UAlbany with five-and-a-half minutes left.
Primus saved a final shot from UC Davis in the last minute to hold the shutout intact. UAlbany earned the 3-0 victory.
UAlbany will take on the winner of tomorrow's quarterfinal game of Pacific-New Hampshire. The semifinal contest will be on Saturday, November 5th at 5:30 p.m. ET (2:30 p.m. PT).
In other action of the tournament, West Division 1-seed Stanford defeated East Division 4-seed UMass Lowell 3-2.
