Field Hockey Championship Field Announced

Bowdoin Earns Top Seed for Second-Straight Year

HADLEY, Mass. - With a 3-0 win at Wesleyan on Saturday afternoon, Bowdoin College earned the top seed and a first round bye in the 2006 NESCAC Field Hockey Championship. The Polar Bears will serve as host for the semifinals and final for the second year in a row, with the semifinals commencing on Saturday, Nov. 4, and the championship game taking place on Sunday, Nov. 5. First round action for the seven-team tournament begins on Sunday, Oct. 29.

Bowdoin (13-1, 8-1 NESCAC) finished the regular season on Saturday tied atop the NESCAC standings with Middlebury, however the Polar Bears defeated the Panthers in the lone meeting between the two squads this season, 3-2 on Oct. 1 in Brunswick, Maine, giving Bowdoin the tiebreak advantage over Middlebury. The Polar Bears are the defending NESCAC champions, going a perfect 9-0 during the 2005 conference campaign and winning both tournament games to capture their second NESCAC crown after winning the inaugural title in 2000. Bowdoin’s only loss this season came at Williams on Sept. 23, 1-0, however the Polar Bears hold an undefeated streak at home that dates back to October of 2004, a streak of 18-straight victories.

Middlebury (12-2, 8-1 NESCAC) enters the tournament field for the second year in a row as the second seed after finishing the regular season with the lone NESCAC loss at the hands of Bowdoin. The Panthers head into Sunday’s first round contest with a bit of momentum thanks to a 3-1 victory over Trinity on Saturday afternoon. Middlebury, which won its only NESCAC championship in 2003, will host seventh-seeded Wesleyan (6-8, 3-6 NESCAC) on Sunday for the second time this fall. The first meeting between the two squads occurred on Sept. 23 at Middlebury, a 1-0 victory for the Panthers. Both teams advanced out of the first round during last year’s championship after they hosted first round games in 2005, however the two teams did not meet in the semifinals. This will be the first time that Middlebury and Wesleyan have met in the history of the playoffs.

There will be no need for Williams (12-2, 7-2 NESCAC) to get familiar with its tournament opponent on Sunday, as the Ephs will face Amherst in Williamstown, Mass., for the second day in a row after the two squads battled through the rain in a contest that ended in Williams favor, 5-1 on Saturday. The win locked up the third seed for the Ephs, while the Jeffs, who finished tied with the Cardinals of Wesleyan in the NESCAC standings, secured the sixth seed thanks to a 2-1 overtime victory at Wesleyan on Oct. 21. Williams started the season with 10 consecutive victories thanks to a defense that posted six consecutive shutouts. After stumbling to Middlebury and Tufts on two consecutive weekends in October by identical 2-0 scores, the Ephs appear to be back to their winning ways. Although the Jeffs had a rocky start to the 2006 campaign, Amherst began to roll in the middle of October with five straight victories before Williams halted the streak on Saturday afternoon. The Jeffs are making their first appearance in the NESCAC tournament since 2003 and will be facing Williams for the third time in tournament history on Sunday. Both previous meetings have been won by Williams, the last coming in the first round of the 2002 tournament, 3-0.

The remaining first round contest will actually be the first tournament game played on Sunday when fourth seed Tufts (10-4, 6-3 NESCAC) hosts fifth seed Trinity (9-5, 5-4 NESCAC) in a meeting of two teams in the midst of strong seasons. After falling to the Bantams in Hartford on Oct. 14, 2-1, the Jumbos have put together four straight wins, most recently defeating Connecticut College at home on Saturday, 2-0. The Bantams ended their conference slate on the road over the past two weekends, falling at Bowdoin 2-0 on Oct. 21 and at Middlebury 3-1 on Saturday. While Trinity came just short of hosting a first round game for the first time in playoff history, the Bantams have been close in every conference game this season, falling by a margin of two goals or less. This will only be the second time that Trinity has appeared in the NESCAC tournament after first participating in the 2004 event, while Sunday’s game represents the fourth consecutive showing in the playoffs for Tufts, advancing to the semifinals on two separate occasions. The two teams have never met in the NESCAC tournament.

2006 NESCAC FIELD HOCKEY CHAMPIONSHIP
First Round - Sunday, October 29 at Higher Seeds
No. 5 Trinity at No. 4 Tufts - 11:00 a.m.
No. 7 Wesleyan at No. 2 Middlebury - 1:00 p.m.
No. 6 Amherst at No. 3 Williams - 2:30 p.m.

Semifinals - Saturday, November 4 at Bowdoin
No. 1 Bowdoin vs. lowest remaining seed
Remaining first round winners

Championship - Sunday, November 5 at Bowdoin
Semifinal winners - 12:00 p.m.