WASHINGTON –– The American University field hockey team came back after dropping a two goal lead to defeat Bucknell, 3-2, on Friday afternoon and remain undefeated, 4-0, in Patriot League play. With the win, the Eagles have clinched a spot in the Patriot League Tournament for the 25th consecutive season.

Quick Notables

• Lotti Süme, freshman defender and the Eagles second goal scorer, now has two goals in three games.
• Kaleigh Missimer scored American's first goal of the afternoon. The graduate student hasn't played a minute all season due to injury but was able to take both penalty strokes awarded to American on the day, converting the first.
• The game-winning goal came from Sophie Willemse as the result of a penalty corner. As the stopper for penalty corners, midfielder Emilia Winkler earned her fifth and sixth assists on the season.
• Both teams took 18 shots for a combined 36 total in the outing. AU had the better in shots in target though, 13 to Bucknell's 10. The Bison earned 10 penalty corners to AU's five.
• Eagles' goalkeeper Pauline Gineste matched her career-high eight saves in the contest.

How It Happened
The Bison came out hard and heavy in the first period, and although both sides took two shots on target in the frame, Bucknell had a majority of possession through the first 15 minutes.
 
American fought back in the second quarter, scoring twice in three minutes. The first goal of the day came as the result of Missimer putting a penalty stroke past the Bucknell keeper Sarah Althouse to register her first goal of the season and put the Eagles ahead.
 
The second goal of the second period came when Süme converted on a penalty corner with a drag flick to double American's lead and put AU up 2-nil at halftime.
 
Bucknell came back, scoring twice within three minutes in the third period, to level it all. A goal by Nicky Punt and then, after a kerfuffle in front of the cage, Reese Czajkowski scored off an assist from Sally Hunter. Between the two goals, American had an opportunity to add to their tally with a second penalty stroke awarded, but Althouse made the impressive save.
 
Going into the final frame tied at 2-all, the Eagles were able to convert on another penalty corner in the 49th minute, their third in quick succession. On the third attempt, Willemse left no doubt, rocketing the ball into the back of the cage to put American back ahead.
 
Gineste was forced to make two more saves quickly after the Eagles went ahead, but AU was able to outlast and take the game 3-2 heading into the weekend.
 
From Head Coach Jennings
"It's everything. Bucknell is an awesome team, so well coached and it was a true battle today. To be able to come out when we were under a tremendous amount of pressure in the first quarter and survive through that and then rebound after giving up a two goal advantage is huge. It's important for us to be able to win all the league games we can and today was a big step for us.
 
"We need Pauline to play big, and she used her senior experience and everything that she's done in training to be ready for the big moments, and I thought that she stood up and got us through some difficult moments today."

Coming Up
The Eagles are out on the road with a run of three away games until the final game of the regular season on Nov. 1. First up, on Oct. 19 they'll face the Richmond Spiders with a push back time of 12 p.m.
 
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American 3,  Bucknell 2
Scoring:  AU – Kaleigh Missimer (penalty stroke), 19:47; AU – Lotti Süme (Ninthe Botman, Emilia Winkler), 22:45; BUCK – Nicky Punt, 35:26; BUCK – Reese Czajkowski (Sally Hunter), 37:56; AU – Sophie Willemse (Olivia Morraye, Emilia Winkler), 48:48
Shots: AU 18 (3/6/5/4), BUCK 18 (5/3/5/5)
Penalty Corners: AU 5 (0/1/1/3), BUCK 10 (4/1/2/3)
Goalkeeper Saves: AU 8 (Pauline Gineste, 60:00, 8 saves, 2 goals allowed); BUCK 10 (Sarah Althouse, 60:00, 9 saves, 3 goals allowed)
Records: AU 8-5 (4-0 PL), BUC 6-6 (3-2 PL)