COLLEGEVILLE, Pa. – The Ursinus College Field Hockey team used a four-goal second half to rally from an early first half deficit and defeat Washington College 5-2 in the first round of the Centennial Conference Tournament on Tuesday evening at Snell Alumnae Field.
 
With the win, the Bears improved to 10-8 overall and will advance to the Centennial Conference Semifinals to take on top-seeded Johns Hopkins. Meanwhile, the Shorewomen wrap up their season at 9-9 overall.
 
 
The Bears had most of the possession in the opening eight minutes of the game but fell behind 1-0 when the Shorewomen made their first push of the game in the ninth minute of action. Kat Esposito scored on a hard shot from the right circle after collecting a rebound from the initial chance off a penalty corner. Esposito then struck again four minutes later after sneaking the ball past Bears senior goalkeeper Jordan Ulsh after receiving a long pass in the circle from Anna Harrington. Ursinus pressed again in the final minute but had a pair of shots saved.
 
 
The teams battled in the midfield for the majority of the second quarter before the Bears broke deep into the Shorewomen's end. First-year Lauren Bresich got the Bears on the board in the 25th minute after knocking in a rebound from a Maeve Montgomery shot in the left corner of the net. Ulsh kept the deficit at one for the Bears after turning away back-to-back chances in the final seconds of the second quarter.  
 
 
Ursinus hit the ground running to start the second half as they immediately went on the attack as senior Jordan Moore knotted the game up at two with a strike off a penalty corner in the 32nd minute. Moore kept the Bears run going just under two minutes later with her second goal to put the Bears ahead for the first time in the game at 3-2. Moore fed a wide open Addie Plummer in the circle but had the ball kicked away by a sprawling Shorewomen goalkeeper Ava Rivera. However, her kick went right to Moore who easily lifted the ball into the cage.
 
 
Sophomore Mary Lauren Franz extended the Bears lead with their fourth-straight goal of the game in the 48th minute after a crisp set of passes from a penalty corner. Moore found Franz open on the right side of the net after receiving an initial feed from Lauren Weaver and Franz ripped the ball past Rivera. Ursinus continued to dominate the fourth quarter by rarely letting the ball leave their attacking end and junior Ellie Bruggeman capped the comeback by redirecting a Weaver shot from the top of the circle into the net to make it 5-2.
 
The Bears held a sizable 29-9 edge in total shots behind out-shooting the Shorewomen 11-0 in the fourth quarter. Ursinus also held sizable edges in shots on goal at 18-6 and penalty corners at 14-4. Ulsh earned the win by making four saves in the full 60 minutes while Rivera suffered the loss despite a valiant 13-save effort in the full action.
 
Moore continued her scorching hot streak by scoring goals 17 and 18 on the night while finishing with five total points. She has now scored 10 goals in the Bears last six games behind three multi-goal efforts.
 
Ursinus returns to action on Thursday, November 3rd for their Centennial Conference semifinal tilt in Baltimore with Johns Hopkins at 6 p.m.