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Lawrenceville, NJ -- Rider has completed its long-awaited return to the top of Northeast Conference field hockey.
Lori Hussong’s Broncs stampeded past Long Island University, 5-0, in the 2020-21 NEC Championship Game on Ben Cohen Field.
The Broncs out-shot their opponent by an 18-2 margin to secure the program’s seventh NEC crown in style.
Thursday’s victory was Rider’s first title game triumph since 2012 as the NEC temporarily halted its field hockey sponsorship shortly prior to the 2013 campaign.
When the Northeast Conference rebooted the championship in 2019, Rider wasted no time in returning to the conference final, where it fell to nationally-ranked Fairfield, 2-1, in overtime.
Nearly 18 months after that stinging autumn defeat, the Broncs rolled past their opponent in the first-ever springtime NEC title tilt.
“Today, they played their best game of the season,” said Rider’s Lori Hussong, the NEC Coach of the Year. “They played hard and played as a team.”
Forward Julia Divorra, the NEC Player of the Year, provided the Broncs’ first goal 8:42 into the opening quarter.
With a penalty corner opportunity breaking down and the ball rolling towards the goal crease, Divorra pounced on it and beat the keeper for her seventh goal in seven games this season.
Carly Brosious doubled Rider’s lead in the second quarter.
Tess van Ommeren sent a cross from right to left and Brosious deflected it past the LIU keeper, giving the Broncs a 2-0 advantage prior to halftime.
van Ommeren was far from finished.
The Dutch-born forward rattled the cage twice in the third quarter with her two goals separated by 1:42 on the clock. Finishing with six points (2G, 2A), van Ommeren earned the NEC Championship Game Most Valuable Player award.
“We’ve been training extremely hard, working on all the things we did wrong in past games,” said van Ommeren. “We watched LIU play [on film] to prepare as best as we could for this game.”
Both of van Ommeren’s goals were hard shots blasted off penalty corners.
Four of Rider’s five goals happened on penalty corner plays with the Broncs totaling 11 such opportunities over the course of the game.
“Well, we practiced our penalty corners.” Said Hussong. “It was a really weak spot for us during the last six games in the regular season, and we worked really hard this week.”
Meanwhile, LIU was unable to earn a single penalty corner on the opposite end.
Making their first-ever NEC Final appearance, the Sharks registered two shots on goal and Rider keeper Kaitlyn Tomas turned aside both.
LIU GK Rachel Vellis made eight saves.
NEC All-Championship Team
Tess van Ommeren, Rider (MVP)
Julia Divorra, Rider
Rachel Vellis, LIU