Trinity Field Hockey Takes Care of Neumann In NCAA First Round
Hartford, Conn. - Freshman forward Payson Sword (Princeton, N.J.) scored the first two goals of the game and added an assists and senior co-captain forward Karli Del Rossi (Mantua, N.J.) recorded a hat trick with an assist to lead the Trinity College Bantams to a 7-0 win over the visiting Neumann College Knights in the opening round of the NCAA Division III Field Hockey Championship Tournament this afternoon on Robin L. Sheppard Field. Trinity, ranked No. 12 in the nation, improves to 13-4 with the win in its first-ever NCAA Field Hockey home game and advances to the NCAA Second Round against No. 11-ranked Rowan University on Saturday, Nov. 15 at Messiah College at 1 p.m. The Knights close the year at 11-11 with their first loss in seven games.
The vast majority of the game was spent in the Neumann defensive zone, as the Bantams outshot the Knights, 52-2, and held the visitors without a shot for the first 46 minutes of the game. Neumann freshman goalie Jordan Haviland (Aurora, Colo.) made five saves in the first three minutes of the game and kept the game scoreless for 12 minutes despite constant early pressure by the Bantams, until Sword rolled in a shot from the left wing on a pass by junior forward Carrie Wolcott (Hamilton, Mass.).
Trinity tacked on two more goals in the next 6:50 of the game, as Sword scored on a blast from the top of the circle on one of 15 first-half penalty corners for the Bantams and Del Rossi scored her first goal from close. Wolcott added a goal with 40 seconds left before the break and Del Rossi tallied again 1:01 into the second stanza to up the Bantam lead to 5-0. Del Rossi and freshman Julia Maldonado (Hooksett, N.H.) added late goals to round out the scoring and Maldonado's goal was the first of her collegiate career.
Haviland finished with 32 saves, while Trinity freshman goalie Gina Dinallo (West Hartford, Conn.) did not face a shot for the first 45 minutes of play before yielding to sophomore Payden Sra (Pewaukee, Wisc.). Sra was forced to make the lone Bantam save shortly after entering, but was not challenged in the final 20 minutes.
