Box Score
Photo Gallery
Championship Game Highlights - NCAA.com
Updated NCAA Field Hockey Championships Program
BLOOMSBURG, Pa. – Seniors Nicole Fiorilla and Brynn Adams each scored in the first half to lift West Chester to a 2-1 victory over UMass-Lowell in the 2011 NCAA Division II Field Hockey National Championship Game at the Sports Stadium in Bloomsburg, Pa., Sunday afternoon.
“We are thrilled to win the national championship,” WCU first-year head coach Amy Cohen said. “I’m kinda at a loss for words. The team knew how unique an opportunity this was.”
Fiorilla got the Golden Rams on the board first when she finished off a cross from teammate Kayla Gluchowski seven minutes into the contest. It was her 13th goal of the season, but her first since Oct. 11.
“No one had to tell me I hadn’t scored in awhile,” Fiorilla said. “It was certainly a relief. But, what made the goal that much more special was that the play was generated from the back, and that is what we have been working on all year. Everyone was involved in that goal. Kayla and I were just the ones up field, who finished the play.”
Eight minutes later, Adams corralled Leah Angstadt’s insertion on a penalty corner, stepped to the right and blasted a shot past UMass-Lowell goalkeeper Melanie Hopkins to double West Chester’s lead.
The early two-goal lead helped the Golden Rams relax, after going double-overtime and then to penalty strokes in the semifinals on Friday. However, the River Hawks did not go away and potted a goal in the 57th minute to make things interesting.
When Gluchowski was sent off for five minutes with a yellow card, the Golden Rams played down a player and held off a frantic UMass-Lowell attack that was searching for the equalizer. River Hawks’ head coach called timeout and pulled her goalkeeper to try to apply more pressure in West Chester’s zone. However, the Rams were up to the challenge.
“With legs situation, after playing 100 minutes on Friday, the last 15 minutes were definitely stressful,” Cohen commented. “Our goalkeeper did a great job, and the girls in front of her did a great job as well.”
“Amazing,” was how Fiorilla described the feeling in the post-game press conference. “Every athlete’s dream growing up is to win a national championship. It was all positive energy. We worked for it, and we got it done. We used every tool in the tool box, too!”
Kristin Arnold came up with 12 saves in the cage to earn the win. That is a season-high and just one shy of her career best against North Carolina a year ago. Hopkins made 10 saves in the loss.
“I can’t say enough about the way the girls in front of me played today,” Arnold added.
West Chester outshot UMass-Lowell, 20-17, and held a 15-10 advantage in corners.
NOTES: It is the first NCAA national championship and fifth overall for the field hockey program, which won four Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) titles in the mid 1970s, and it comes in the school’s first season after re-classifying to the Division II level … UMass-Lowell was the defending national champion, having beaten Shippensburg, 1-0, in last year’s championship game … West Chester claimed its fourth NCAA team title with the win … the field hockey squad joins the 1961 men’s soccer team, and the 2002 and 2008 women’s lacrosse teams as the only NCAA champions in school history … Adams, Arnold, Fiorilla, and Michele Schrift were named to the all-tournament team.
