COLLEGEVILLE, Pa. - The No. 2 Salisbury University field hockey team suffered a heartbreaking 2-1 overtime loss to No. 10 Middlebury College in the NCAA Division III field hockey semifinals on a frigid Friday afternoon at Eleanor Frost Alumnae Field on the campus of Ursinus College before a crowd of 350.

Middlebury freshman Allison Grant poked in the game-winner 5:42 into the first overtime period in a scrum in front of the Salisbury goal to send the Panthers (17-4) to tomorrow's championship game where they will face NESCAC foe and top-ranked Bowdoin College (19-0) for a third time this season at 1 p.m.

Grant's initial shot was saved by senior goalie Maria Ramoundos (seven saves) then a shot by Heather McCormick was stopped by senior back Kristina Holland who made a beautiful defensive save before Grant could get her stick on the ball and score.

"It's a little different in overtime because its 7-on-7 and there is a lot more space," said Ramoundos about the overtime period. "The ball got crossed, they had a wide open net and they did what they needed to do."

Salisbury (20-2) had a strong chance to end the game minutes before as sophomore Lauren Correll broke out on a fast break towards the Panther cage and looked for fellow sophomore Beverly Beladino on the right side who was left one-on-one with the Middlebury goalie. A foul was called on the Panthers before Beladino could make a play on the goal. The Sea Gulls settled for their 16th and final penalty corner of the game by sophomore Michelle Rowe (one defensive save). Freshman Kandice Hancock fired off a shot that was blocked and sent the Panthers the other direction.

This is the second season in a row that Salisbury's season ended in overtime as the Sea Gulls lost to Christopher Newport University 2-1 in the NCAA second round. Salisbury is 4-10 all-time in NCAA overtime games. SU last lost a NCAA semifinal game in overtime in 2002 when Rowan knocked off SU 3-2 in double overtime. In the past seven years, Salisbury's season ended with three national championships or an overtime loss in the NCAA playoffs. The loss ends SU's 19-game winning streak.

"I am really proud of them. They had a really great year and we basically reached every one of our dreams except one. We had a lot of goals set and we matched them," said Salisbury coach Dawn Chamberlin. "This was a fantastic year and its just unfortunate that there has to be a losing team because I think both teams really played well today. We left it all on the field today."

The Sea Gulls struck first in the game six minutes into the second half when senior Danielle Twilley fired in a rocket of a shot off an assist from Holland. Twilley's goal was set-up off a penalty corner as SU led 1-0 at the 40:51 mark. The goal was Twilley's third straight in as many postseason games this year.

Middlebury struck back 12 minutes later off a penalty corner as Lacey Farrell set-up Lindsay McBride who beat Ramoundos to knot the game at 1-1 at the 52:56 mark.

Salisbury pressed on and applied more pressure on the Middlebury goal five minutes later. Twilley had a shot off a penalty corner that went into the Panther goal but was too high and was waved off. Minutes later the Sea Gulls called a timeout with less than 10 minutes left in the second half. Out of the timeout the Panthers got off two back-to-back shots that went wide of the Sea Gull cage.

In the final five minutes, Salisbury had several opportunities as the maroon and gold drew four penalty corners and took four shots. Holland took three of those four shots off penalty corners and had two of them saved by Middlebury goalie Caitlin Pentifallo (five saves) and one went wide. Hancock added a shot in the flurry of activity in front of the Panther goal.

Salisbury started the game strong as senior Ashley Twigg fired off the first shot 17 seconds into the game which led to the Sea Gulls' first penalty corner of the game. Twilley got off another shot that was saved by Pentifallo 41 seconds into the game. The two teams battled back-and-forth the rest of the half to a 0-0 tie as Middlebury held a slight edge in shots 7-5 while SU had an advantage in penalty corners 5-3

This is the first time Middlebury has ever beaten Salisbury in field hockey as the previous two meetings were in the 2003 and 2004 national championship games where the Sea Gulls won both games by three-goal margins.

Bowdoin has never won a national championship in any sport while Middlebury last won a field hockey national championship in 1998.

This was the final game for nine Salisbury seniors who end their career with a remarkable 80-7 record in four seasons and two national championships. Salisbury's seniors are Twilley, Holland, Twigg, Ashley Spencer, Ashley Cartrette, Lauren Dietz, Kortni Pedlow (one defensive save), Jami Gobao and Ramoundos.

"The leadership of this team and the captains have helped to nurture the younger players. They really stepped it up today and I think everyone really had a great game," said Chamberlin. "We just couldn't get the ball to go where we needed it when we needed it and its just unfortunate and that's the sport."