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GAME PROGRAM
WEST CHESTER vs BLOOMSBURG UNIVERSITY
Game Details: October 22 I 5 P.M.
Location: Vonnie Gros Field
Series All Time: WCU, 17-6
WEST CHESTER, PA – West Chester University's women's field hockey squad hosts Bloomsburg University Wednesday evening at 5 p.m. at Vonnie Gros Field. The conference game not only means an awful lot in the league standings, but it will also go a long way in determining who makes the NCAA Tournament.
West Chester (9-4, 4-2 PSAC) and Bloomsburg (12-2, 4-2) are currently tied for second place in the league standings with East Stroudsburg (13-2, 4-2) and Shippensburg (12-2, 4-2) making it a four-way logjam.
Clouding the playoff picture even more is the fact that West Chester has a win over East Stroudsburg and loss to Shippensburg while Bloomsburg has a win over Shippensburg and a loss to East Stroudsburg. There is still a lot of field hockey to play in the final two weeks with a lot more to be determined.
SCOUTING THE GOLDEN RAMS
The Golden Rams are coming off a 3-2 victory over Mansfield on the road in Northern PA over the weekend.
Veerle Hersman (Lisse, The Netherlands) continues to carry the hot stick for West Chester, scoring two of the team's markers in the win.
Gianna Funari (Voorhees, N.J./Voorhees) notched the game-winner late in the fourth quarter, marking the second straight game in which she scored a goal. Defensively, West Chester yielded six shots on its cage in the win. Hersman is tied for third in the conference in goals scored (12) while
Caitlynn Szarko (Eldersburg, Md./Liberty) and
Sofia Brown (Broomall, Pa./Cardinal O'Hara) are tied for fifth in the league in assists (6).
SCOUTING THE HUSKIES
Bloomsburg enters Wednesday's showdown on the heels of an upset win over Shippensburg last Saturday. That contest went into penalty strokes with the Huskies coming out on top, 2-1 in six rounds. The two sides played to a scoreless draw through 80 minutes before the game went to a shootout.
Bloomsburg goalkeeper, Maura Greek, leads Division II in shutouts with nine to her credit this fall. Junior forward, Genna Bush, is among the league leaders in scoring with 16 goals and 33 points.
THE WEST CHESTER-BLOOMSBURG SERIES
Bloomsburg defeated West Chester twice last fall with both games at home at Steph Pettit Stadium. Those two victories ended a 15-game winning streak for the Golden Rams over the Huskies. Bloomsburg has not beaten West Chester on the road since 2012 when the rivals split the two meetings with the road team winning each time.
THE ATLANTIC REGIONAL RANKINGS
West Chester is expected to be listed among the teams in consideration for the NCAA Division II Tournament from the Atlantic Region. That list will be released some time on Wednesday afternoon. The first rankings are merely an alphabetical listing of the teams in consideration. Next Wednesday (Oct. 29) is the first actual ranking of schools in the Atlantic Region.
The Division II Field Hockey Championship provides for an eight-team, single-elimination tournament. The Division II Field Hockey Committee will select the five teams in the Atlantic region and three teams in the East region and seed them one
through eight, regardless of region. First-round games will be Saturday, Nov. 15, semifinals will be Friday, Nov. 21 and the championship final will be Sunday, Nov. 23.
UP NEXT
The Golden Rams travel to Slippery Rock on Saturday, October 25 to take on The Rock at 12 p.m.
