• Directions to Stuart Day School

College Field Hockey
FRIDAY GAMES MOVED TO STUART COUNTRY DAY SCHOOL IN PRINCETON
Final Two Regular Season Games Friday, Sunday
Broncs Battle for NEC Regular Season Title This Weekend 

LAWRENCEVILLE--You can go home again, well sort off.  After a two month stretch that saw the Rider University field hockey team with three on campus home games in the first 16 contests of the season, the schedule has come down to this.

Win twice, once at Stuart Day School Friday and once at home on Sunday and you get to stay home.  Sounds strange for a playoff bound team that is battling for first place but that is exactly where the team wants to be, at home, on its own turf (or grass if you will).

With wins over Northeast Conference rival Siena (4-12, 2-4 NEC) (Friday, 4pm at SDS) and defending NEC champion Lock Haven (16-3, 7-0 NEC) at noon on Sunday, the Broncs will host the four-team playoffs November 6-7.

Rider is undefeated in five 'home' games this season with one game scheduled at Princeton Day School and one game moved to Mercer County Community College due to heavy rain.

This is the 10th straight season that Rider (15-1, 6-0 NEC) has made the NEC playoffs and the Broncs have advanced to the NEC Title Game in eight of the past nine seasons, winning the championship in 2000, 2002 and 2004.

Rider was the NEC regular season champion in 2001, 2003 and 2005.

The Broncs are led by sophomore Megan Pisani (Plainsboro/West Windsor-Plainsboro North) who is second in the conference in scoring with 38 points (17 goals, 4 assists) and sophomore Virginia Egusquiza (Getxo, Spain) who leads the conference (and ranks eighth nationally) with 14 assists.  Egusquiza recently set the Rider individual season assist record.

Senior goalie Lyndsie Johnson (Gibbsboro/Eastern) is third in the country in goals against average (0.67) and recently set the Rider single season record with her ninth shutout.

Also leading the charge for the Broncs is freshman Marlaine Schneider (Feasterville, Pa./Neshaminy) who has six goals and six assists.  Schneider has been honored five times by the NEC as Rookie of the Week.  Overall, a Rider player has received either Player or Rookie honors from the NEC all nine weeks of the 2009 season.

Lock Haven enters the game Sunday on a 13-game winning streak after starting the season 3-3 and the Lady Eagles have won 31 straight NEC regular season games.

Lock Haven defeated Rider 3-0 in the NEC Title Game in 2008.

Prior to the game on Sunday, Rider will honor its four graduating seniors, Brittany Baxter (Stroudsburg, Pa./Stroudsburg), Kelly Crist (Belford/Middletown North), Lyndsie Johnson (Gibbsboro/Eastern) and Erin McGinniss (Newton/Kittatinny Regional).

LiveStats will be available for both games by clicking on the field hockey schedule at www.gobroncs.com.

-RU-