WINCHESTER, Va. – Shenandoah University seeks its first-ever ECAC Field Hockey championship with a noon game Sunday at Lebanon Valley.
The second-seeded Hornets (16-4) face top-seeded LVC (13-7) in the championship game held at Arnold Field on the Lebanon Valley campus.
The Dutchmen advanced to the championship with a 1-0 win Saturday over Juniata, while Shenandoah took out Alvernia, 4-1.
Sunday's game is the fourth lifetime matchup between SU and LVC. The two teams met annually between 2008-10 with the 2009 and 2010 contests coming in-conference as Shenandoah was a member of the MAC Commonwealth for field hockey at that time.
Lebanon Valley won all three of those games, outscoring SU by a combined 24-2 in the three contests. The Dutchmen were ranked in the nation's top seven in each of those matchups.
Shenandoah and Lebanon Valley have four common opponents this season: Lynchburg, Gettysburg, Hood and Alvernia.
SU was 3-2 versus those five opponents, dropping 2-1 and 2-0 decisions to Lynchburg and defeating the Bullets, Blazers and Golden Wolves by an aggregate total of 15-2.
LVC was 2-2 in those contests – the Dutchmen lost to Lynchburg and Gettysburg, both by a 2-1 count, while beating Alvernia by the same score. Lebanon Valley defeated Hood, 7-0.
Kelsey Jones and Taylor lead the Hornets in scoring with both women posting 41 points on the year. Jones has nine goals and a nation-leading 23 assists and Hayes 16 goals and nine assists.
In Saturday's semi-final round win over Alvernia, Hayes had a goal and an assist.
Goalkeeper
Isabella Morande now has a 1.05 goals against average and 83 saves in 1138 minutes.
Cecile Kat paces LVC with 19 goals and three assists for 41 points; Kat is 20 points clear of the next highest total on her team.
Nikki Willi has a 1.25 GAA and 87 saves in 865 minutes.
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