Gwynedd Mercy Academy blanks Lower Moreland

LOWER GWYNEDD — Wednesday afternoon, the Gwynedd Mercy High field hockey team was beginning practice for its second-round District One Class AA playoff game against Lower Moreland.

“We had just started our warmups,’ recalled sophomore Kaitlin McCauley, “and someone asked how good the team was that we were going to play.’

“And we said that it didn’t really matter how good they were,’ said senior Kelly Pizzirani, picking up the story. “All that mattered was how good we were.

“We were the ones who were going to win or lose the game.’

And one day later, facing Lower Moreland in a contest played on the turf at Gwynedd Mercy University, the second-seeded Monarchs were very good.

Dominating from the midpoint of the first half on, Gwynedd Mercy blanked Lower Moreland, 6-0, to advance to the tournament semifinals, where it will play the winner of Friday’s contest between New Hope-Solebury and Upper Perkiomen.

“We don’t go into anything with expectations about who we’re playing,’ said Monarchs head coach Sue Persichetti. “We just go in feeling we have to play at 100 percent, and that’s the only expectation we have for ourselves.

“We knew this wouldn’t be an easy task.’

And early on, it was not.

The Lions, while not holding a territorial edge, did manage to hold their own.