BACK-TO-BACK; WCU Tops Shippensburg 3-1 To Win Field Hockey Title

WEST CHESTER, Pa. – Sr., F Kaitlin Hatch (Sewell, N.J..Washington Twp.) was named tournament MVP as the top-ranked West Chester University Golden Rams claimed the 2018 Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) field hockey postseason tournament championship at Vonnie Gros Field for the second consecutive season with a 3-1 win over Shippensburg.
 
West Chester (17-2) will now wait until Monday afternoon to see if its body of work over the entire 2018 fall is enough to garner one of the top two coveted seeds in the NCAA Tournament, which  would send the Golden Rams right to Pittsburgh, Pa., for the national semifinals at the NCAA DII Festival in two weeks. Shippensburg (16-4) will wait and see if it also receives one of the three bids from the region to the national tournament.
 
For West Chester, it was the second straight and fourth overall. The Golden Rams also won the title in 2012 and 2014.
 
Hatch was named most valuable player for her pair of goals, one in each of the two games this weekend. Her tally on Sunday was a beautiful reverse chip up into the top right-hand corner of the net that gave West Chester a 3-0 lead with 3:30 left in the game.
 
Shipppensburg's lone marker came just seconds later when Jazmin Petrantonio converted a penalty stroke to make the score 3-1.
 
The Golden Rams wasted little time getting started in the championship game. Katie Thompson (Washington, N.J./Warren Hills) opened up the scoring in the second minute when she tipped in a pass from Caitlin Kelly (Coatesville, Pa./Bishop Shanahan) while standing on the far right post. Taylor Bracale (Hummelstown, Pa./Lower Dauphin) started the play with a pass to Kelly, who one-timed it over to Thompson for the tip on a bang-bang-bang play. Bracale finished the tournament with three assists (two in Friday's semifinal) and was a big reason goalkeeper Marissa Elizardo (North Wales, Pa./North Penn) faced just 13 shots in two games combined this weekend.
 
West Chester's defense was stout for the second straight game, yielding just five penalty corner opportunities for the Raiders on Sunday and 10 shots.
 
Thompson finished the tournament with one goal on Sunday and a pair of assists from Friday.