The No. 3 seed University of Scranton field hockey team earned a spot in Saturday's Landmark Conference Championship game with a 1-0 semifinal victory at No. 2 seed Catholic on Wednesday and will hit the road to battle top-seeded Susquehanna on Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m.
Saturday's winner will earn the Landmark's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament and the field is slated to be announced in a live selection show on NCAA.com on Sunday evening at 10:30 p.m.
Ticket prices for Saturday's game are $7 for adults and $4 for minors ages 10-17 and seniors 62 and older. Children ages nine and under are admitted free of charge, as are all Landmark Conference students, faculty and staff with their school ID.
Tickets are now on sale and can be purchased by clicking this link. Cash will also be accepted at the gate, but advance purchase through HomeTown ticketing is the preferred method.
In Wednesday's victory at Catholic, sophomore Annie Shaw (Exton, Pa./Villa Maria Academy) scored the lone goal of the game in the 29th minute following a feed from freshman Ava De Natale (Westchester, N.Y./Valhalla). Junior goalie Gianna Travia (Havertown, Pa./Cardinal O'Hara) made three saves in net for her seventh shutout of the season.
Susquehanna built an early 2-0 lead and then held on for a 3-2 win over No. 4 seed Moravian in Wednesday's other semifinal with goals from Katie Bucher, Lydia Hidlay and Sarah McAndrews.
This is the third championship meeting in five seasons between the Royals and River Hawks with each winning one. The River Hawks notched a 2-0 victory in 2018 before the Royals returned the favor with a 4-1 victory in 2019.
Scranton also defeated the River Hawks in the 2021 Landmark semifinals en route to capturing the title.
For the Royals, seniors Katie Redding (Havertown, Pa./Haverford) and Bridget Abraldes (Holbrook, N.Y./Sachem East) are tops in the conference in both goals (Redding: 17, Abraldes 11) and points (Redding 41, Abraldes 29), while also sharing the lead in assists with Susquehanna's Kari Schmidt with seven.
Redding and Shaw are also tied for the conference lead with four game-winning goals.
In the cage for the Royals, Travia leads the Landmark in goals against average (0.60) and shutouts (seven) and sits second in save percentage (.771).
Susquehanna features a balanced scoring attack with five players with five goals or more led by seven apiece from McAndrews and Schmidt.
Click the following links for live video and live stats of Saturday's game.
--ROYALS--
