Oct. 25, 2003

Final Stats

St. Louis, Mo. - The struggling Billikens put on a show of force and control today as they defeated the Lindenwood Lions 2-1 in the final minute of regulation. The match was fairly even as SLU took 14 shots to the Lions 10, each keeper made four saves while Lindenwood earned seven penalty corners to the Bills' four. Field and ball possession was balanced throughout the match.

SLU keeper Julie Moeckel had a stellar day allowing only one goal and stopping four, including a penalty stroke taken by LU's Ingrid Hoffman.

Five bloody players left the field as the slick, wet field and a ball to the face wreaked some havoc with the players' control of the game. Most of the injuries were caused by rug burns while Saint Louis' Michelle Sinclair had a ball bounce from the field hitting her in the face. Sinclair did not return to the game, while the remaining injured return to the battle field.

Lindenwood, a member of the Kentucky, Indiana and Tennessee conference (K.I.T.) fell to 11-4 while Saint Louis improved to 2-13 on the year.

LU began the scoring with Hoffman putting the ball between the pipes in the final minute of the first half. Billiken Kelly Hellenga scored from a Rapp pass with just two minutes clicked off the second half clock. The Bills were fired up after Moeckel's save on the Hoffman penalty stroke and fought hard.

During the last minute of play, Saint Louis lined up for a penalty corner. With Lombardo passing the ball in to stopper Marissa Lynn, stroker Rapp put the ball in the back of Lindenwood's net for the gamewinner.

"I was really happy with my team today," said head coach Maria Whitehead. "They played a hard 70 minutes of hockey and fought to the end of the game. Julie was awesome in goal and Alisa (Hebert) had a fine game as well. Kristin Lueders play was outstanding all day. Now, we need to carry this effort and emotion over to next weekend."

Saint Louis travels to meet Northwestern on Halloween and will host the final regular season game next Sunday against SMS. Sunday's match will be Senior Day honoring Lindsay Lombardo and Alisa Hebert for their four years of dedication to the Billiken field hockey program.