The Old Dominion Field Hockey team 14-5 (6-1 BIG EAST) made school history on Sunday by winning its first-ever BIG EAST Championship after defeating the No. 6 Liberty Flames 17-2 (7-0 BIG EAST) 3-1. The Monarchs’ winning streak extended to 12 games, which secured them an automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament. Senior forward Marlon de Bruijne scored the game-winning goal in the third quarter, which will be remembered as a historic moment as ODU will be playing in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2013.
Old Dominion dominated the game in the first quarter, with three corners and three shots but failed to score. Liberty opened the scoring in the second quarter when Bethany Dykema took a rebound and scored. The Monarchs responded four minutes later on a penalty corner as sophomore forward Sacha de Gier found junior midfielder Frederique Zandbergen to tie the game.
ODU took the lead five minutes into the third quarter when Zandbergen passed a ball to senior midfielder Rina Tsioles on a penalty corner, and De Bruijne dribbled the ball to the right side and fired a shot to the left of the Liberty keeper. Old Dominion sealed the game one minute into the fourth quarter when Zandbergen found graduate back Nicole Fredricks on the back post to give the Monarchs a 3-1 advantage. The Lady Monarchs held onto the lead and won the Championship.
Head coach, Andrew Griffiths, said, “I’m incredibly proud of our team. We controlled the game from the start, and we were very disciplined, played the game plan really well with great effort and execution.”
“This has been 11 years coming to hold the championship trophy and secure the automatic bid. We have been through a lot of ups and downs in those years. This year, in particular, our team has been awesome, they are really together, fight hard, and are not perfect by any means, but everyone is bought in. I’m just really happy for them,” added Griffiths.
Fredricks was named the BIG EAST Tournament MVP and to the All-Tournament Team. Zandbergen, De Gier, and De Bruijne joined Fredricks on the All-Tournament team. Fredricks helped ODU hold opponents to one goal on defense and scored a goal in the Championship. Zandbergen scored a goal and led the tournament with four assists. De Gier scored the game-winning goal against Temple on Friday in the semi-final and added an assist. De Bruijne scored the game-winning goal in the Championship.
After a victory, Old Dominion secured an automatic bid to participate in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2013. The Lady Monarchs were eagerly waiting for the NCAA selection show which took place last night, where they discovered their first opponent for the tournament. ODU is scheduled to play against No. 4 Maryland (16-5) on November 10th in the second round. The game will be held at College Park, MD at noon.
