By Katherine Harris

Contributing Writer

The women’s field hockey team earned a berth in the playoffs by beating Colgate 1-0 in a thrilling double overtime game during this past weekend’s road trip. The team went on to lose to a nationally ranked Syracuse team.

The Bison traveled to Colgate on Saturday, gearing up to face their Patriot League rivals as they fought for a position in the upcoming league playoffs. The game remained scoreless for all of regulation, with goalkeeper Erica Perrine ’14 keeping the Raiders out of the net for her second shutout of the season. In the second overtime, the Orange and Blue pulled out the victory when forward Mallory Smith ’12 scored a goal less than two minutes into the period.

“Playing at Colgate is always a challenge; they bring a tremendous amount of energy and effort to every game and play a style that is very different than what we normally play against, so we were thrilled to come out on top,” head coach Jeremy Cook said.

On Sunday, the team faced No. 5 Syracuse for its final game of the regular season. The Bison ended up with a 3-1 loss, midfielder Gabby Palumbo ’15 scoring the only goal for the Bison. Perrine once again played a strong game in goal, making 15 saves as she fought off over 30 shots from the opponent.

“Quite simply, I think that the team performed exactly the way we needed to,” Perrine said. “We were completely aware of what was riding on these games, and even when things weren’t going the way we expected or wanted… we fought our way through it and came out at the end of both games with no regrets and results to be proud of.”

With their win on Saturday clinching the fourth and final spot in the Patriot League playoffs, the Bison are now completely focused on the tournament. The Orange and Blue face off against the American squad Friday for the semifinals, and they will play in the championship game on Sunday if they win.

“We will continue to improve this week on the things we have been working on all year, with a bit of added emphasis to our penalty corners,” head coach Jeremy Cook said. “We feel great about the playoffs, we proved earlier this year that American is beatable and now have to do it at their place.”