PINE VALLEY, N.Y. – The St. John Fisher College field hockey team punched its ticket to the Empire 8 conference tournament with a 5-2 win at Elmira Wednesday afternoon. Sophomore Gianna Palma tied a season-high five points with two goals and one assist to lead the Cardinals on the offensive end. With the win, Fisher moves to 12-4 on the year with a 5-0 record in conference while the Soaring Eagles drop to 6-8 overall and 0-5 in the E8.

After earning National and Conference Offensive Player of the Week honors, junior Bre Socker opened up the scoring late in the first quarter with a tipped shot that came from the edge of circle by senior Reghan Amoroso. The Cardinals suffocated Elmira with not allowing a single shot for the entire first half.

The Soaring Eagles got on the scoreboard early in the third quarter to tie things up at 1-1. Amoroso would put Fisher back out in front later in the period with a score that came on her own rebound. A few minutes later, Palma netted her first of the day after carrying the ball into the circle and beating an Elmira defender and its net minder to give Fisher a 3-1 edge heading into the fourth quarter.

The Cardinals kept their foot on the gas pedal in the final period as they held a two-goal lead. Under six minutes remaining Palma pushed the advantage up to three on a score set up by Socker. The clock ticked to under two minutes when Palma sent a long pass toward the net that senior Lindsay Scott was able to tip into the upper left corner of the cage to make it 5-1 Fisher. Elmira would score another goal in the final minute to settle the score at 5-2.

Palma led the way with five shots, with all of them on goal. As a team, the Cardinals had an accurate game with 16 of their 20 shots on net. On the defensive end, Fisher limited the Soaring Eagles to only four shots while senior goalie Kelly Bergamo made one save over 60 minutes played in between the pipes.

In the last 10 games, Socker has scored in eight of them as the forward pushed her season totals to 23 goals and 50 points this year, both of which lead the Empire 8. With three points today, Amoroso reaches a new career-high of 14 points this season.

Fisher returns home on Saturday to go head-to-head with Washington and Jefferson in a rematch of last year's conference championship. The game is scheduled to start at 12 p.m. from Growney Stadium.