SELINSGROVE, PA - The crowd size at Susquehanna's Sassafras Field swelled almost as much as the SU field hockey's team advantage against Moravian in Wednesday night's Landmark Semifinals as the top-seeded River Hawks delivered a 2-0 victory over the fourth-seeded Greyhounds. Concurrently, the maroon and orange learned their fate for Saturday's championship game at the conclusion of their win as third-seeded Scranton topped two-seed Catholic 4-0 in their semifinals matchup. The River Hawks and Royals will square off once again from Sassafras this Saturday at 2 p.m. for the conference title. Susquehanna won the regular-season matchup against Scranton, 2-1, back on Saturday, Oct. 26 on their way to their first unbeaten Landmark regular season in school history.

Fans from both teams filled in to watch the Wednesday evening matchup, with either side sitting comfortably enough after a scoreless first quarter. Despite the scoreless opening 15, the River Hawks had a grip on the contest with five shots to Moravian's zero, as well as four penalty corners to none. It took just a few minutes into the second quarter for this to translate into a goal. As Moravian attempted to clear the ball out of its zone, they got caught in a Susquehanna trap, carried out by Lauren Leibensperger, Taylor Rothermel, and Rebecca Ripans. Leibensperger and Ripans converged on Lexi Dinsmore as the ball rolled upfield to Rothermel. She scooted it up to Leibensperger and with one sweep to the bottom right corner gave the Hawks a 1-0 lead going into halftime. 

The Greyhounds tried their best to counter, but were stymied time and time again by Susquehanna's defenders, with their only shot offering coming just once in the second quarter as senior goalkeeper Ashley Derrick stood in for a 60-minute shutout. Moravian had three penalty corner chances, once in the second quarter and two in the third, but were unable to get anything on line. The game moved to the fourth with Susquehanna still holding a one-goal lead. It took just three-and-a-half minutes for them to move closer towards a conference championship berth when Rothermel again played goal contributor, setting up Sophia Prata with a pass across the face for the senior's ninth goal of the season to make it 2-0 with 11:21 to go. 

Prata's nine goals ties fellow senior Kari Schmidt for the team lead, with Schmidt ranking first in scoring with nine points and seven assists for 25 points and Prata second with 20 pints on nine goals and two assists. As for the sophomore Rothermel, her five assists ties her for third on the team, while Derrick improves to 10-4 on the season with four shutouts, putting her career-wise at 24-8 lifetime in goal with 11 shutouts. Prata now has 48 career points on 21 goals and six assists. 

In Susquehanna's previous matchup at Scranton, the River Hawks built a 2-0 first-quarter lead, taking advantage of two penalty corner chances and keeping the Royals off the board until the fourth quarter. Last year's Landmark Conference championship game between the two had to be decided in a penalty shootout. With the Royals leading early and for much of the game 1-0, Susquehanna finally broke through with just under three minutes to play after Rothermel's equalizer. Thanks to Derrick's superb goaltending on her way to Landmark Tournament MVP, Susquehanna prevailed 2-1 in the shootout.