YORK, PA – The tenth ranked York College field hockey squad opened their stay in the NCAA Tournament with a 2-0 win over Johnson & Wales on a crisp Wednesday afternoon in York.
The Spartans have won seven straight while the Wildcats had their 17-game win streak halted with the loss.
York heads to the second round with a record of 17-5 while Johnson & Wales sees their season comes to a close at 18-4.
 
How It Happened
• The first quarter saw the both teams spend a majority of the quarter in the middle of the field. The Spartans had a little better of the possession but that paid off with just one shot as Kelbie Linebaugh forced Wildcat goalie Sophia Brea to make a stop with just 2:01 left in the stanza.
• The Spartans cranked it up offensively in the second quarter. After three straight shots on goal in the first six minutes of the quarter, the Spartans earned their first penalty corner. York got a Riley Buschert shot on goal and then immediately drew a second corner. That corner resulted in York's first goal as Hannah Downs inserted the ball to Libby Wild who drove home a shot for a goal. The goal was her seventh of the year and came with 7:52 left in the half.
• Spartans dominated the quarter, out shooting JWU 7-0 in total shots and 5-0 in shots on goal. York also had a 5-0 bulge in penalty corners in the opening 30 minutes of action.
• York kept the beat going in the third quarter as they kept the play in the Wildcats' defensive third of the field. The Spartans added to the lead on their only corner of the quarter as Wild unleashed a shot that was saved by Brea. Fortunately for York, the rebound came right to the stick of Linebaugh who poked home the chance for the 2-0 Spartan lead.
• The Wildcats drew their first penalty corner of the match 4:35 into fourth quarter. The Spartan defense cleared out the chance before JWU could fire off a shot. The Spartans finished the game out shooting the Wildcats 14-0 including 11-0 in shots on goal. York also had a 7-1 bulge in shots on goal.
 
Spartan Notes
The meeting between the two programs was the first in school history … the Spartans improve to 3-2 all-time in the NCAA Tournament … York has advanced to the NCAA Tournament second round in all three of their appearances … Johnson & Wales falls to 0-4 all-time in the tournament … York earned their school-record 17^th win of the year … the win breaks the previous record of 16 set in each of the last two years … the Spartans conclude the season with a record of 9-2 at home and are now 35-7 over the last four years at Kinsley Field … the Spartan senior class improves to 63-21 for their career … the Spartan win streak extends to a season-best seven games as they have outscored their seven opponents 26-2 … the Wildcats were shutout for just the second time this year as they entered the game averaging 3.66 goals per game … the Spartans held their third opponent without a shot in a game as they also stymied Misericordia and Eastern earlier in the year … the Spartans picked up their 12^th shutout of the year as they lower their goals against average to 0.57 as a squad … senior Libby Wild recorded her seventh goal of the year including her second game-winner … the career goal is Wild's 13^th as she now has 33 points … freshman Kelbie Linebaugh recorded her sixth goal of the year with her big insurance goal … senior Belle Fields continues to push her career records farther out of reach as she now has 48 wins and 30 shutouts, both standards for the program … Fields improves to 17-5 for the year with 13 clean sheets.  
 
Up Next
The Spartans now head to Salisbury, Maryland to participate in the regional with Salisbury, Lynchburg, and Christopher Newport. Salisbury and Lynchburg square off on Saturday in the second round game at 11:00 am. The Spartans and Captains will face off for the second time this year in the other second round game that is set for a 2:00 pm start. The two winners play Sunday afternoon at 1:00 pm. All four teams in the regional are ranked in the NFHCA top 25. Salisbury is ranked #1 followed by Christopher Newport at #5, York at #10 and Lynchburg at #14.