Bowdoin Overpowers Tufts 3-0 for NESCAC Field Hockey Crown

Courtesy Tufts Sports Information

Box Score

MEDFORD, Mass. – Senior co-captain Ingrid Oelschlager (Roanoke, Va.) scored twice and junior Elizabeth Clegg (Hudson, Ohio) set up two goals as the Bowdoin College field hockey team won its sixth NESCAC championship on Sunday with a 3-0 victory at Tufts.

Bowdoin is back on top in NESCAC after Tufts had stopped the Polar Bears' four-year run (2005-08) of conference titles last fall. Improving to 16-1 overall, Bowdoin earns the conference's automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament. Tufts (15-2), playing in its third straight NESCAC final, will earn an NCAA at-large berth.

The first good scoring opportunity of the day came off the stick of Bowdoin junior Katie Herter (Topsfield, Mass.). At the other end of the field, a rocket off the stick of Tufts defender Taylor Dyer (Windham, N.H.) from outside the circle was deflected and Polar Bear goalie Emily Neilson (Chatham, Pa.) saved it with her blocker.

Bowdoin scored the all-important first goal when Clegg crossed the ball and first year Olivia King (Georgetown, Mass.) slapped it into the right corner of the cage with 15:29 on the clock. Less than 10 minutes later Clegg would assist on a similar goal. Her cross to Oelschlager went in at 6:40 to help Bowdoin take a 2-0 advantage into halftime. The visitors were also up 9-2 in shots and 4-1 in corners for the first 35 minutes.

After an early save by Neilson on a Tufts shot by senior Melissa Burke (Walpole, Mass.) in the second half, Bowdoin extended its lead to 3-0 at the 28-minute mark. Senior Michaela Calnan's (Melrose, Mass.) pass was slammed home by Oelschlager for her second of the game.

The Jumbos responded with good offensive pressure, earning three consecutive corners. However, they could not get a solid scoring opportunity out of any of them. With a three-goal lead, the Polar Bears concentrated on defense and eventually earned their 11th shutout of the year. It was the first time the Jumbos have been shut out this season.

The three goals by Bowdoin were the most against Tufts since the Polar Bears won the 2008 NCAA Championship Game played between the two teams 3-2 in overtime. Bowdoin finished with a 16-8 advantage in shots today, and 7-6 in corners. Both Neilson and Tufts junior goalie Marianna Zak (Concord, Mass.) made five saves.

2010 NESCAC FIELD HOCKEY CHAMPIONSHIP
Quarterfinals - Sunday, October 31 at Higher Seeds
at No. 1 Tufts 4, No. 8 Bates 1
at No. 2 Bowdoin 2, No. 7 Connecticut College 0
No. 6 Trinity 3, at No. 3 Middlebury 2
at No. 4 Amherst 3, No. 5 Wesleyan 0

Semifinals - Saturday, November 6 at Tufts
at No. 1 Tufts 3, No. Trinity 0
No. 2 Bowdoin 3, vs. No. 4 Amherst 2 - OT

Championship - Sunday, November 7
No. 2 Bowdoin 3, at No. 1 Tufts 0

2010 NESCAC FIELD HOCKEY CHAMPIONSHIP

Quarterfinals - Sunday, October 31 at Higher Seeds
1:00 p.m.
No. 8 at No. 1
No. 7 at No. 2
No. 6 at No. 3
No. 5 at No. 4

Semifinals - Saturday, November 6 at Highest Remaining Seed
11:00 a.m./1:30 p.m.
  Highest Remaining Seed vs. Lowest Remaining Seed
Remaining First Round Winners

Championship - Sunday, November 7
Semifinal Winners - 12:00 p.m.

Format
The top eight teams in the conference will qualify for the NESCAC Field Hockey Championship.  Quarterfinal games will be conducted on Sunday, October 31, 2010 with the semifinals and championship games conducted on Saturday, November 6 and Sunday, November 7, respectively.  The tournament champion will receive an automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Championship. 

Seeding
Seeding will be based on final conference standings of round robin play. Standings will be based on team winning percentages. Ties shall count as half a win.

The 8th seed will play at the 1st seed, the 7th seed will play at the 2nd seed, the 6th seed will play at the 3rd seed, and the 5th seed will play at the 4th seed.  Teams will be re-bracketed after first round games and the lowest remaining seed will face the highest remaining seed.

Pairings
Pairings will be announced Friday, October 29.

Tie Breaking Procedures
Ties will be broken as follows:

Head-to-head result (if teams play each other more than once during the regular season, the game that appears on the league schedule will be the game that is counted).

If teams tied during the regular season, or there is a 3-way or more tie, the following tie breaking procedure will be used:

• Best record among tying teams, against one another (head-to-head).
• Most conference wins (in games that are part of the conference schedule and count toward league standings).
• Comparison of results of conference games played against top 4 teams (including all teams at the 4th spot).
• Comparison of results of conference games played against top 8 teams (including all teams at the 8th spot).
• Comparison of results of conference games played against conference teams in rank order.
• Comparisons shall be made one team at a time starting with the highest ranked team.
• If the tie remains after comparing results against the highest ranked team, the results against the next team in rank order shall be used. This process is continued until a winner is determined.
• Coin flip (or similar random action involving all tied teams).

Note: In case of ties among three or more schools, the criteria above will be applied in order until a team is (or teams are) separated.  At that point, the process begins anew (returning to the first criteria) with the remaining teams.  The process is continued until the tie is eventually broken.  In cases where only a random action will break the tie of three or more teams, the random action will be applied to all teams involved in the tie.  For example, if three teams are tied and only a random action (pulling names out of a hat) will break the tie, each name will be pulled and seeded in order of being pulled.  Also, in the event that there are two (or more) groups of teams tied at different spots in the standings and the only criteria left that can be used to break those ties is a coin flip/random action, the coin flip/random action used to break the tie of one group (to put teams in rank order) will not affect the tie breaking procedures of the other group(s) of tied teams.