Cardinals outlast Crusaders to clinch top Landmark seed

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Catholic (10-7, 5-1 Landmark) held on for a 3-2 win over Susquehanna in Saturday's final regular season game and earned the number one seed in the Landmark Conference field hockey tournament.

Erin Kelly started the scoring for the Cardinals when she hit the back of the cage 15 minutes in. Michele Repass had taken the shot and Crusader keeper Lyndsay Meabon (Dillsburg, Pa./Northern) saved it, but the rebound came to Kelly's stick and in for the score.

Senior Megan Sites (Loysville, Pa./West Perry) knotted it up with eight minutes to go in the half when she scored from the middle of the circle off of a pass from Andrea Fiori (West Trenton, N.J./Lawrenceville School) to make it 1-1 going into the break.

The Cardinals took the lead early in the second when Tory Gagliardi sent the ball down the middle of the field and into the circle where Kelly coaxed it along and into the goal to go up 2-1. With three minutes remaining in the game Repass made a shot from the right side to make it 3-1.

In the waning moments of their Crusader careers, senior Christine Ottley (West Chester, Pa./Unionville) took a shot off of a corner and Sites found the save at her stick, sending it in for the 3-2 final.

The Cardinals had 30 shots while Susquehanna had six, five coming late in the second half. Meabon had 19 saves for the Crusaders and Marian Cassilly had three for Catholic.