HAVERFORD, Pa. – The Ursinus Field Hockey team locked up a berth in the Centennial Conference Tournament by holding on for a 3-2 win over Haverford on Wednesday night.
 
 
With the win, the Bears improved to 8-8 overall and 5-4 in Centennial Conference play. Ursinus can lock up the fourth seed and a first round home Centennial Tournament game with a win on Friday over Gettysburg. Meanwhile, the Fords fell to 7-9 overall and 4-5 in conference action and now must beat Swarthmore on Saturday to clinch a berth in the Centennial tournament.
 
 
Each team had a pair of chances on net in the opening four minutes with both having a shot bounce off the post. Ursinus drew three penalty corners in a span of 18 seconds and senior Jordan Moore converted on the third one with a shot at the top of the circle after getting a pass from classmate Laura Rothschild, putting the Bears up 1-0. The Bears then extended their lead exactly two minutes later when first-year Gigi Testa knocked in off a deflection by the Haverford goalkeeper following a long blast from outside the circle from sophomore Maeve Montgomery.
 

Moore nearly added a second goal in the 18th minute after getting behind the Fords defense but had her shot kicked away by the goalkeeper. Ursinus continued to press in the Fords zone and sophomore Mary Lauren Franz made it a 3-0 game after knocking in a rebound after Ellie Bruggeman had her initial shot saved from a corner.
 

Despite the deficit, it was all Haverford in the third quarter as they broke the shutout just over two minutes into the second half with a goal off a penalty corner. Haverford outshot the Bears 8-0 in the third quarter but the Bears prevented further damage by blocking the majority of the shots. Ursinus senior goalkeeper Jordan Ulsh closed the quarter redirecting a shot from a penalty corner in the 43rd minute. Ulsh then came up big in the opening minute by turning away a 1-on-1 chance in the circle before cutting off a chance coming from the right side. Unfortunately for the Bears, a Fords shot from a corner deflected off Ulsh's pads and into the net to make it a 3-2 game in the 51st minute. Ursinus regrouped and did not allow Haverford to get a shot off for the rest of the game and held on for the win.
 

The Fords held a slight 17-16 shot advantage for the game after out-shooting the Bears 11-2 in the second half. Ursinus held an 11-8 edge in shots on goal and a slight 7-6 advantage in penalty corners. Ulsh made six saves in the full 60 minutes to earn the win while Mary Smith suffered the loss for the Fords and made seven saves.
 

Ursinus wraps up the 2022 regular season on Friday, October 28th as they will travel to face Gettysburg at 3:30 p.m.