Madison, NJ (November 1, 2017) - The DeSales University field hockey won its first-ever MAC Freedom playoff game, knocking off the top seed, FDU-Florham, 2-0, in the MAC Freedom postseason tournament semifinals on Wednesday evening.

The Bulldogs advance to the championship game on Saturday, traveling to the #2 seed, Misericordia University, with game time set for 6:00 pm.  Not only did the Bulldogs win their first-ever postseason game, DSU also set a new school-record with its 12th win of the year improving to 12-7 overall.

DSU took a 1-0 lead 8:34 into the game when senior Kelly Meade (Philadelphia, PA) pushed a pass to a streaking junior Kylie Honnick-Payne (Johnson City, NY) who broke free for a 1-v-1 with the Cougar keeper, side-stepping her in the box and scoring her 17th goal of the season.  DSU controlled play the rest of the half out-shooting the Devils, 6-4, and held off four Devils corners to take the 1-0 lead into the half.

FDU pushed its offense up in the second-half but the Bulldogs defense had every answer as sophomore Katarina Polyviou (Cranford, NJ) made seven of her eight saves in the second-half preserving the shutout and the win.  DSU added an insurance goal at 67:30, just 30 ticks after the Devils decided to play with 11 field players and no goalie and no kicking back.  After winning possession in the middle of the field after the change, sophomore Christie Hansen (San Diego, CA) found fellow sophomore Claire Gogel (Danielsville, PA) on the right side of the field.  Gogel then pushed a pass forward to Honnick-Payne who fired a shot into an empty cage giving the Bulldogs a huge insurance goal with 2:30 left to play.

The goal gave Honnick-Payne her 18th tally of the year breaking the single-season mark of 17 set in 2004 by Gina Malatesta.