The Lindenwood field hockey team dominated their first game of the ECAC Tournament on Friday when they routed Mercy College by a final score of 3-0 to advance to the finals. This was the Lady Lions' ninth shutout of the season and their third in a row.
 
Neither team struck on offense within the first five minutes of play until Karlie Quinn shot towards the goal that was blocked at the 5:38 mark. The Lady Lions then gathered a corner attempt that led to a shot-on-goal from Tara Robben that was kicked away at the 7:02 mark. Following five minutes later, Robben received a long pass from Amelia Rodriguez then shot inches from the goal that was saved at the 12:08 mark.
 
Starting at the 17:20 mark, the Lady Lions became occupied on defense for the next two minutes, defending three corners and three shots from Mercy. After that, both teams battled for possession of the ball until Greta Banholzer unleashed a shot saved at the goal at the 22:56 mark followed by a shot from Nicole Johnston a minute later.
 
Although Mercy gathered an opportunity to score at the 28:39 behind a shot traveling wide, the Lady Lions applied full pressure on offense by getting a corner attempt two minutes later. Quinn shot the ball right at the post of the goal, but Robben took full advantage of a loose ball and scored the first goal of the game at the 32:14 mark. That goal gave the Lady Lions a 1-0 lead heading into halftime.
 
The Lady Lions immediately registered a shot coming out of halftime when Robben launched a shot right at the goalie followed by another missile from Johnston that was saved. Mercy collected the ball and carried it to its side of the field in which its forward attempted a shot from 20 yards out easily saved by Skylar Starbeck at the 37:42 mark.
 
Then Robben struck again. At the 40-minute mark, she stood around the goalie's circle and found an avenue to the goal on the right side and scored her 20th goal of the season.
 
During the next nine minutes of play, the Lady Lions controlled the ball by earning three corners and shooting three times until they struck the scoreboard again at the 49:05 mark. After initiating a corner, Shelby Easley concluded a passing spree by the Lady Lions when she hovered over the goal post and scooted the ball past the goalie off an assist from Noor Fons.
 
The Lady Lions continued to cruise in ball control as they gathered three more corners and shot three times with two coming off the stick of Robben within the next five minutes. They received a free penalty shot in which Chloe Bell took the shot and missed at the 54:35 mark.
 
As the game progressed, Lindenwood handled the ball mostly, but only garnered one corner attempt while Mercy could not register any sort of offense.
 
The Lady Lions once again dominated the shots category as they shot 19 total times with 14 on-goal compared to Mercy's five total shots. They also had double the amount of corners, leading Mercy by a 14-6 margin.
 
Following the victory, the Lady Lions improve to 15-3 on the year, and they will face Limestone in the finals of the ECAC Tournament on Sunday at noon. Both teams hold a 1-1 tiebreaker from the season with Lindenwood winning the last contest 2-0 on October 22.