The Lindenwood field hockey team competed at a high level on both sides of the ball against its toughest opponent of the season so far in No. 9 Adelphi as the Panthers needed overtime to defeat the Lady Lions by a final score of 4-3 in Garden City, N.Y. on Friday.
 
The Lady Lions stormed right out of the gate understanding they needed to maintain a high-tempo offense. As a result, Tara Robben led the aggressive offense within the first two minutes of play and defeated the Panthers' defender one-on-one on a breakaway goal to give the Lady Lions an early 1-0 lead. The Panthers attempted to guide the ball onto their offensive side of the field, but the Lady Lion midfield play limited their chances as they regained possession. Megan Pranger had an open lane from the left side of the field to score, but Panthers' goal Amanda Garguilo denied her.
 
The Panthers tried to jumpstart some speed onto their offense and passed down field, attempting to juke Lady Lion defenders. However, Nicole Johnston stole the ball that led to a Lady Lion fast-break commanded by Greta Banholzer. The Lady Lions passed efficiently downfield until Banholzer slung one shot that was blocked by Garguilo. Thankfully, Banholzer gathered the rebound off Garguilo's save and slid past her towards the wide open goal for the score at the 6:22 mark.
 
The Panthers garnered some momentum after the Lady Lions' goal as they earned two corner attempts. Emily Power tallied their first shot of the game, but Skylar Starbeck blocked her shot.
 
At the 19:08 mark, Amelia Rodriguez got her first corner attempt of the day in which she passed to Noor Fons. Fons shot towards the right side of the goal, but never really had a chance to reach the goal. Two minutes later, the Panthers responded with a shift from the left side of the field and triple-teamed Starbeck in the goal. However, the Lady Lions committed a penalty which allowed the Panthers to score their first goal off a free shot of the stick of Lena Pollich at the 21:50 mark.
 
The Lady Lions felt pressure for next ten minutes as the Panthers continued to apply aggressive ball movement across the right to mid-part of the Lions defense. Amelia Rodriguez, Nicole Johnston, and Robben made multiple stops throughout that timespan, but Elissa Frein of the Panthers belted a shot from eight yards away at the left side of the goal past Starbeck for their second goal of the game.
 
Graycen Dave immediately retaliated with a "not-so-fast" goal of her own literally 19 seconds later to give the Lady Lions the lead right back. Right before the first half ended, Banholzer swerved around two defenders on the right side of midfield to set up another one-on-one duel with Garguilo towards the goal. Banholzer lifted up a shot towards Garguilo's left shoulder that allowed her to stop the Lady Lion fast break. The Lady Lions also had one more corner attempt, but did not convert into any shots taken. The Lady Lions entered halftime with a 3-2 lead.
 
The Panthers began the second half with three corner attempts in which the Lady Lions emerged to stop two of the scoring chances. However, Elizabeth Mercuri dove towards the ball and swung her stick mid-air to get the ball past Starbeck to tie the game up at three goals apiece 42:55 into the game.
 
Following the goal, the Lady Lions remained busy on defense, having to deflect three different opportunities for the Panthers to tally more goals. They rejected three corner starts within a two-minute span until the Lady Lions collected their offensive opportunity at the 50-minute mark. Victoria Buysschaert attacked the goal from the left side, but was once again saved by Garguilo.
 
The Lady Lions intercepted the ball at midfield that led to a long pass to Noor Fons who then swiped a shot right at Garguilo who kicked the ball away at the 52:24 mark. They earned another chance when Virginie Leyssens started off a corner attempt leading to two passes until Maroussia Buysschaert shot between two defenders that was eventually saved by Garguilo at the 58:20 mark.
 
Leyssens had three additional corners within a two-minute-span leading to two shots on goal from Johnston, M. Buysschaert, and Robben that were saved.
 
With two minutes remaining, the Lady Lion defense came up big when they halted heavy pressure from three Panther forwards and did not allow a single shot with an open goal. They nearly converted that sparked momentum into a goal multiple times with 45 seconds remaining in the second half when Leyssens passed off a corner to Banholzer. Banholzer brought out heavy artillery when she launched two shots close to the goal in which both were impressively saved by the Panther defense. The half would end after the Lady Lions had the ball 20 yards away from the goal, setting up their third overtime of the season.
 
In overtime, Robben played stout offense and defense in the first two minutes when she stole the ball and took it across the field until a Panther defender stopped her just short of the goal. The Panthers brought the ball back onto their side of field and garnered three corner attempts and six shots attempted over the course of eight minutes. The Lady Lions would not give in as Rodriguez and Starbeck denied the Panther offense time and time again close to the goal.
 
On the fourth corner of overtime, the Panthers surged with a pass to Jamie Ahrens who found Mercuri to complete the final scoring play of the game.
 
Both teams were fairly equal in the shots category as the Lady Lions held a 16-15 edge with an outstanding 15 of them being on-goal. Starbeck finished the game with six total goals with Rodriguez collecting a defensive save of her own. Robben's goal marked as her 13th of the season while Banholzer's was her sixth. Dave tallied her fifth score.
 
After the tough battle, the Lady Lions now hold an overall record of 8-3 as they will face off with Molloy on Saturday at noon CT. The game will take place at Rockville Centre, N.Y.