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No. 7 Washington Wraps Up 7-3 Victory Over Virginia Tech in National Collegiate Club First Round
GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- Scott Sussman (So., Mercer Island, Wash.) recorded a hat-trick in the first period to earn Player of the Game honors and lead the No. 7 nationally-ranked University of Washington Huskies to a 7-3 victory over unranked Virginia Tech in the opening round of the 2009 Men's National Collegiate Club Championship at the University of Florida.
The victory puts Washington into a second round match-up against No. University of Arizona at 12:30 p.m. on Saturday, November 14 for a berth in the semifinals, while the Hokies will next be in competition at 7:30 p.m. against Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) in the consolation bracket.
Washington never trailed in the game opening up a 3-0 lead in the first period on back-to-back natural goals by Sussman at 5:17 and 4:29 before he buried an exclusion tally with 29 ticks left on the period clock.
The teams traded goals to open the second period with VT's Brian Schmitt (Jr., Falls Church, Va.) converting on a man-up opportunity with 4:23 left in the first half before Joe Laird (Fr., La Jolla, Calif.) gripped-and-ripped the ball into the cage on an exclusion chance by the Huskies with 3:42 showing on the clock for a 4-1 game.
Virginia Tech appeared to take over the momentum of the game following the man-up score as Joe Dorsch (Sr., Souderton, Pa.) and Braxton Vinson (Jr., Arlington, Va.) put home markers on exclusion chances at 3:13 and 1:44, respectively, to pull the Hokies to within a score at 4-3 entering halftime.
However, Washington was not done scoring or playing defense as the Huskies locked down on the Hokies in the second half and tallied goals by Victor Wong (Jr., Honolulu, Hawaii), Riley Brazil (Sr., Bellevue, Wash.) and Tom Stowell (Jr., Mercer Island, Wash.) at 4:08, 2:46 and 27 seconds in the third period to take the 7-3 victory.
In cage, Arad Abadi (Sr., Shiraz, Iran) picked up the win for Washington with 10 saves, while VT's Peter Ollis (So., Bethesda, Md.) took the loss with 11 saves.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | -- | Final | |
| Virginia Tech University | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | -- | 3 |
| No. 7 University of Washington | 3 | 1 | 3 | 0 | -- | 7 |
Washington Goals:
Scott Sussman (3); Riley Brazil; Tom Stowell; Victor Wong; Joe
Laird
VT Goals: Joe Dorsch; Brian Schmitt; Braxton Vinson
Saves: Washington - Arad Abadi (10) ; VT - Peter Ollis (11)
Exclusions: Washington - 4 ; VT - 5
Advantage Opportunities: Washington - 3-for-5 ; VT - 3-for-4
Sprints: Washington - 1-for-4 ; VT - 3-for-4
