By Joyce Novacek

Writer

Corinne Raczek ’11 tied the program record in career assists at the conclusion of overtime when she passed to Kelly Bruvik ’11, who scored the game-winning goal of the field hockey’s Colgate 3-2 at home on Sunday. With this victory, the Orange and Blue rise to third seed for the Patriot League tournament this weekend.

The Bison outshot Colgate 13-1 in the first half but the first frame was scoreless.  Both teams scored two goals in the second half.

Only a minute into the second frame, Rachel Misko ’14 scored the first goal of the game and her sixth of the season.  Two minutes later, the Raiders responded with a goal to knot the score at 1-1.

The Raiders took the lead when Laura Denenga scored the second goal of the day for Colgate.  Not long after, Katie Durkin ’13 rebounded a shot from Bruvik and scored a diving goal to tie the score at 2-2.

Raczek assisted Bruvik for the game-winning goal with only four seconds left in overtime. With this assist, Raczek earned her 34th career helper, tying her with former teammate Amanda Faust ’09.  Faust and Raczek are the only two Bison ever to exceed 30 career assists.

“We were so pumped up for the game on Saturday. We knew the importance of our game but also knew that we just had to play like ourselves … We knew the whole game that it was our game and we were able to prove it to everyone else in the end,” Misko said.

The game was senior day for the Bison, who have four seniors on the roster: Bruvik, Raczek, Christine Weiss ’11 and Morgan Kauffman ’11.

“The seniors have made a tremendous impact on this program and will be missed so much by all of us. During the game, I wanted more than anything to win for them and you can’t come up with a more exciting ending than when Bruvik scored the game winning goal in overtime,” Durkin said.

“I could not have asked for a better class to start off my college career with. They’ve taught us so much and will be greatly missed next year,” Misko said.

The Bison will face second-seeded Lafayette in the semifinals of the Patriot League tournament  at 1:45 p.m. Friday in Washington, D.C.