Anna Brandt had never scored more than five goals in 49 previous career games.
The Penn junior midfielder scored an Ivy League Tournament-record eight goals to help the third-seeded Quakers avenge a regular-season loss to Princeton with an 18-14 win over second-seeded Princeton in the tournament’s first semifinal Friday.
Penn (13-3) will try to avenge another regular-season loss and repeat as Ivy tournament champions when it plays host and top-seed Yale 12 p.m. Sunday. The Bulldogs rallied to beat fourth-seeded Harvard, 14-10, in the later semifinals Friday with Jenna Collignon tying Brandt’s hours-old record with eight goals to pace Yale.
Penn held a 21-14 draw advantage over Princeton with a program-record 14 won by Niki Miles, who also had a hat trick and an assist at the offensive end. Almost lost because of Brandt’s scoring mark and Miles’ draw record was Erika Chung equaling the tournament record with six assists. Ivy League Defensive Player of the Year Izzy Rohr caused four turnovers.
Jami MacDonald led Princeton (10-6) with four goals and two assists, but also had five turnovers. Kari Buonanno and Haven Dora each had hat tricks for the Tigers. Amelia Hughes made 11 saves. Princeton, with an RPI of 15, awaits an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament.
The game was knotted 11-11 when Penn scored the final three goals of the third quarter, including two from Brandt in the final 38 seconds. A goal by Dora to start the fourth quarter kept the Tigers within striking distance, but two minutes after a goal by Catherine Berkery re-opened a three-goal lead, Rohr caused a turnover and the Quakers were checked hard from behind after racing downfield. A minute later, Princeton was down two players after a yellow card for another foul and they struggled to get possession over the final six minutes.
Penn took advantage of the penalties to score three straight goals to expand a 15-12 lead to 18-12 before Princeton scored with less than two minutes left.
Berkery also finished with a hat trick. Keeley Block scored a pair of goals. Brandt and Aly Feeley each had three draw controls apiece. Kelly Van Hoesen stopped five shots.
Yale (14-2) followed up its first outright Ivy League regular-season championship with a win in the tournament semifinals. This is the third straight year that they are playing in the Ivy League Tournament title game. They lost to Penn last year in overtime.
Harvard led the semifinal 8-6 two minutes into the second half before Yale scored four straight goals over the next six minutes. Harvard pulled within 10-9 going into the fourth quarter but the Bulldogs got goals by Collignon and Chloe Conaghan in the first five minutes of the final stanza, then two more after Harvard’s only goal of the fourth quarter.
Collignon’s record-tying goals led the way and Conaghan, Fallon Vaughn and Taylor Everson all scored two goals apiece. Conaghan and Ashley Kiernan had two assists apiece.
Callie Hem led Harvard (10-5) with five goals. Callie Batchelder had three assists.
Albany Holds Off UMass Lowell to Reach America East Final
Top-seeded Albany is headed back to its 13th straight America East Tournament title game, but it had to hold off fourth-seeded UMass Lowell to do so.
America East Rookie of the Year Chloe Bowers brought UMass Lowell (12-6) within a goal with 54 seconds left, but Mikaela Mooney came down with the ensuing draw control and Albany (8-9) ran out the clock in a 12-11 America East semifinal win Friday. Albany stormed back from a 4-2 first-quarter deficit with five straight goals to start the second quarter and never let UMass Lowell catch up.
Ava Poupard recorded a hat trick, and Megan Dineen, Mooney and Bryar Hogg all scored two goals apiece. Poupard, Dineen and Mooney each had one assist apiece as well. Grace Cincebox made eight saves.
Haley Phalines led Albany with six draws, including her 200th career draw, but UMass Lowell held a 15-11 advantage with six from Rachel Stax, five from Jade Catlin and four from Julia Napolitano. Audra Hansen and Jade Catlin put up hat tricks for UMass Lowell, which outshot Albany, 14-4, in the fourth quarter. It was UMass Lowell’s first postseason appearance.
Albany will host second-seeded Binghamton 10 a.m. Sunday in the title game. Binghamton, which won a share of its first America East regular-season title, is in its third straight conference championship game after a 13-8 win over third-seeded UMBC on Friday.
The conference’s top scoring team, Binghamton, was held under its 15.17 average, but its defense helped by limiting UMBC to four goals over the final three quarters, including one goal in the final 24:18 after it was a one-goal game. That made it a far easier win than their overtime victory over UMBC two weeks ago.
Olivia Muscolino and Madison Murphy had three goals each, and Carla Curth and Kristen Scheidel each scored two goals apiece. Muscolino and Scheidel also had two assists apiece. Sofia Salgado made eight saves and Hayley Weltner won eight draw controls.
UMBC led through the early going until Scheidel scored with 4:21 left in the second quarter. Binghamton never trailed after that.
Grace Bruce paced UMBC with three goals, and Katana Nelson and Kolby Weedon scored twice apiece. Mary Ellis had two helpers. Isabella Fontana made 10 saves. Weedon, Lauryn Warfield and Ella Killian all had four draw controls apiece.
Last year, Albany beat Binghamton, 14-13, in the title tilt.
UMass, Richmond Once Again Battle for A-10 Crown
Catrina Tobin made a career-high 14 saves as top-seeded UMass survived a scare from fourth-seeded St. Joseph’s, 10-9, Friday in the A-10 Tournament semifinals in Pittsburgh.
Tobin stopped a free-position attempt with 2:30 left and made her final stop on a bouncing shot with 21 seconds left to preserve the win.
Skylar Simmonds paced the balanced offense with two goals and two assists. Fiona McGowan scored twice and had an assist and Charlotte Wilmoth finished with a pair of goals.
UMass (13-4) answered the first goal of the game by St. Joseph’s (11-7) with seven straight to take control in a game that featured big runs for both teams. The Hawks answered back with three straight goals to make it 7-4 early in the third quarter.
After a Wilmoth goal two minutes later, St. Joseph’s scored four straight goals – including all three of Sarah Groark’s team-high – to tie the game, 8-8, in the fourth quarter. After UMass’s Lil Hancock and St. Joseph’s Emma O’Neill exchanged goals, McGowan’s second goal of the game with 4:33 left proved to be the game-winner. Tobin then finished off her career performance.
Maddie Yoder and Bonnie Yu scored two goals apiece for St. Joseph’s.
UMass puts its 12-game win streak on the line against defending champion Richmond, a 16-5 winner over third-seeded Davidson in the other semifinal Friday. It was the second time this year that Richmond was dominant in a win over Davidson.
The Spiders (12-5) jumped out to a 7-1 lead and never looked back. Davidson (11-7) could not get closer than five goals the rest of the way.
Charlotte Edwards scored a hat trick, and Ali Susskind and Colleen Quinn each had two goals apiece. In all, 12 Spiders players scored goals. Abby Francioli played the first 53 minutes and made eight saves. Grace Muldoon had six draw controls, Maggie Jordan had five and Caroline Murphy won four as Richmond dominated possession. Muldoon also caused four turnovers.
Josie Lambert led Davidson with a pair of goals. Kayla Joyce and Paige Doyle combined to make nine saves.
