WINCHESTER, Va. – Third-seeded Randolph-Macon earned the first bid into the 2013 ODAC Field Hockey Tournament championship with a 3-2 overtime upset victory over No. 2 Shenandoah Wednesday afternoon.
Olivia Newman rifled a shot from the top of the circle just inside the right post to give Macon (12-9) the victory over Shenandoah (10-10).
The sudden-victory goal puts the Yellow Jackets into Saturday's championship against the winner of No. 1 Lynchburg vs No. 4 Bridgewater.
SU, which downed the 'Jackets 4-1 one week ago on the same Sprint Field at Shentel Stadium turf, was seeking its first conference championship game appearance.
The Hornets appeared to be in excellent position to make that showing as coach Ashley Smeltzer's club took the first possession of the overtime advanced the ball all the way to the R-MC goalmouth, where Macon was successfully able to clear the ball off the line before Shenandoah could tap home the game-winner.
SU then had one penalty corner and an additional shot wide as the possession stayed in the Yellow Jackets end, but could not come up with another shot on goal.
Macon had two shots on goal, including one that forced Hornets keeper Sarah Clare to come up with a point blank save, before forcing the penalty corner that led to the game-winning goal.
Newman ripped a shot that skipped twice before finding the spot between Clare's outstretched leg and the right post.
The goal ended a contest in which the two teams split 42 shots and saw Shenandoah win 18 of 28 corners.
Randolph-Macon scored the initial goal of the game in the 20th minute when Rachael Gardner fed Catherine Pricone right on the doorstep.
Fortunately for the SU faithful, that lead lasted but 52 seconds as sophomore Presha Merritt set up Cross with the tying goal.
R-MC retook the lead thanks to a rebound goal in the 29th minute and was able to take that one-goal lead into the half.
Cross again brought the game back to level by redirecting a Kelani Bailey shot in the 44th minute, setting up the overtime thriller.
Macon keeper Steph Talley had 12 saves with Clare making 10.
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