WEST LONG BRANCH, N.J. - It's a little bit ironic that the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference's (MAAC) Defensive Player of the Year scored the game-winning goal this afternoon. But just as she has done all season long, freshman defender Luzi Persiehl put herself in the right position at the right time and no one is more thankful than the Fairfield University field hockey team. 

Persiehl scored the deciding goal in the first half to send the Stags to their fourth straight MAAC Tournament championship game with a 1-0 win over second-seeded Rider University, and one step closer to defending the title they won here a year ago. The freshman, who also captured the conference's rookie of the year award, showed her dependability defensively once again, but brought that feature into the offensive third when the team was awarded a penalty corner. 

After the initial shot was blocked by goalkeeper Lena VanDam, the ball landed onto the stick of Persiehl, who flicked the ball into the upper left corner of the goal with just over eight minutes remaining in the half. 

"I have never scored in my entire life, so it was amazing to score today," Persiehl said after the game. "But today was really a total team effort and that was the reason for the goal. The entire team worked together today and that work paid off with the win."

Today's game resembled the regular-season match which was played in Lawrenceville on October 12. Like that game, the Stags defense did its best to limit the potent offense of Rider and did an admirable job by holding the Broncs to just four shots on goal. Unfortunately for Fairfield, two of those shots found the back of the cage, the second of which came in the second overtime of Rider's 2-1 win. 

So on this day, Head Coach Jackie Kane challenged the Stags' defense collectively holding the Broncs to few if any offensive chances. And the back four took Coach Kane's request quite literally by now allowing a shot on goal in the entire 70 minutes of work. In fact, Rider, which finished the regular-season as the highest scoring team in the MAAC, managed just two shots overall but Fairfield defenders deflected those attempts away from danger.

"I told Kelly (Buckley and Emily (Halderson) that they needed to be the glue to hold us together back there today and they were," Coach Kane said. "And it was nice to see Luzi live up to her defensive player of the year award as well. Her effort today showed why she won that award. And I told Zoe (Rosen) that she needed to get a shutout and she put up the goose egg as well,"

While Rosen did not have to make a save, she had a few plays that were instrumental in keeping Rider off the scoreboard. In the second half when Rider started to build pressure with a few penalty corners, Rosen aggressively came off her line to disrupt plays within the circle. Most notably, the Broncs sent a pass across the center of the circle in the final minutes in which Rosen slid across and deflected the ball which was then cleared by a defender to end the threat.

Now, Fairfield will await for its opponent in Sunday's championship game to be determined as fourth-seeded Sacred Heart University plays top-seeded and tournament host Monmouth University later in the day. The winner advances to the title match and faces the Stags with the game slated for a noon start.