The William and Mary field hockey team earned a hard-fought victory on the road Sunday at James Madison, downing the Dukes 4-3 in overtime. The Tribe improves to 5-8 (2-1 CAA) with the win, its first in Harrisonburg since the 2004 season, while the Dukes fall to 8-4 and 1-2 in league play.
Box ScoreThe winning goal came just 54 seconds into overtime, off of the Tribe's third corner in 90 seconds of game action. After JMU had tied the match 3-3 with 45 seconds left in regulation, W&M came down the other end and earned two corners with no time on the clock, getting turned away each time. At the start of the 7v7 golden period, junior
Pippin Saunders (Mittagong, NSW) drove the field and cut in towards the JMU goal, and was fouled to earn another corner. She passed it in to countryman
Emma Clifton (Loomberah, NSW), and the senior captain made to drive the cage herself, drawing defenders in and leaving a pass open to senior captain
Jesse Ebner (Sinking Spring, Pa.) up top. Ebner rifled her shot between the legs of the JMU goalkeeper and into the boards, delivering the win to her team.
Prior to the late-game heroics, W&M controlled play for most of the second half. Coming out of the intermission down 1-0 to a JMU goal 26th minute, the Tribe wasted no time responding. In the 42nd minute, Clifton's pass in from the top of a corner found the stick of freshman
Emma MacLeod (Richmond, Va.), who tipped it past the defense for her fourth goal of the season. MacLeod's double-brace leads all rookies in the CAA this year, while Clifton's assist was the school-record 22nd helper of her outstanding career.
Just two minutes later, the Tribe went ahead 2-1, and never relinquished the advantage the rest of the way. In a scrum in front of the cage, sophomore
Maria Pastor (Burke, Va.) tipped the ball over to Saunders, who buried her shot high in the netting for her team-leading seventh goal of the year. James Madison would equalize in the 60th minute off a corner, but the Tribe answered right away in the 62nd minute. This time it was Saunders providing the entry pass, and she found classmate
Esty Byrd (Charlotte, N.C.) for her first goal of the year to put W&M up 3-2. From there, play was desultory until the final minute of regulation as detailed above.
On defense, junior
Meredith Savage (Virginia Beach, Va.) made five saves in recording her fifth win of the year. The Tribe out-shot the Dukes 22-13, including 13-7 after halftime, and had a slim 10-8 lead in penalty corners.
William and Mary returns home this week for one match on Homecoming Weekend. The Tribe will host Temple, ranked No. 15 in the latest national polls, at 12 p.m. on Saturday at Busch Field.
