Courtesy Williams Sports Information

Box Score

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. - Top-seeded Williams scored two early goals and never looked back as the Ephs earned the 2007 NESCAC Women's Soccer Championship with a 4-0 win over fourth-seeded Bowdoin. The NESCAC title is the second for Williams after winning the 2004 NESCAC crown, and it is the first time in program history that the team has gone 16-0

The Polar Bears (12-4-1) were making their first-ever appearance in the NESCAC title game. The wing gives Williams (16-0-0) the conference's automatic bid to the tourney which begins next week.

The Polar Bears and Ephs faced off earlier during the regular season on September 22 in Brunswick, Maine with the 1-0 result coming in favor of Williams. Bowdoin kept Williams engaged in a high pressure and closely matched game though, which is something that very few teams have been able to accomplish against the undefeated Ephs squad. In the opening minutes of play this afternoon it looked as though a similar game would take place once again.

Senior captain Ana Sani started off the Ephs' four goal outing at the 9:07 mark. Gabrielle Woodson, who finished the game with two assists and one goal, crossed the ball to Sani who was completely unmarked on the far left post. Once Sani received the cross she had plenty of time to settle the ball and nail a hard shot in the far right corner of the net.

Brianna Wolfson rounded out the two goal first period at the 24:48 mark after chipping in a rebound off the Polar Bears keeper.

The Ephs defense proved relentless from the first whistle, and Bowdoin managed only one shot in opening forty-five minutes that came with seven minutes left in the first half. The shots taken by each team today differed considerably when compared to their first match up. In September Bowdoin managed to outshoot the Ephs 12-9, while today Williams knocked off a staggering 28 shots compared to three shots by the Polar Bears.

Williams continued to expand their lead in the second half. At the 69:52 mark, Sarah Walmsley received a throw in from Sara Wild that sailed over her defender's head and right in front of Walmsley's feet. An undefended Walmsley crossed the ball to the far post, where Clare Gallagher found the back of the net for a wide open goal. Woodson iced the victory after a breakaway goal with less than four minutes left in regulation.

Kat Popoff (three saves) and Kelly Thomas (three saves) split time in net for the Polar Bears.

2007 NESCAC WOMEN'S SOCCER CHAMPIONSHIP
First Round - Sunday, October 28 at Higher Seeds
at No. 2 Tufts 6, No. 7 Connecticut College 0
No. 6 Middlebury 1, at No. 3 Amherst 0
at No. 4 Bowdoin 2, No. 5 Trinity 0

Semifinals - Saturday, November 3 at Williams
at No. 1 Williams 4, No. 6 Middlebury 1
No. 4 Bowdoin 1, vs. No. 2 Tufts 1 - 2OT
Bowdoin advances on Penalty Kicks, 4-2

Championship - Sunday, November 4 at Williams
at No. 1 Williams 4, No. 4 Bowdoin 0

2007 NESCAC WOMEN'S SOCCER CHAMPIONSHIP

First Round - Sunday, October 28 at Higher Seeds
12:00 p.m.
No. 7 at No. 2
No. 6 at No. 3
No. 5 at No. 4

Semifinals - Saturday, November 3 at No. 1 Seed
11:00 a.m./1:30 p.m.
No. 1 vs. Lowest Remaining Seed
Remaining First Round Winners

Championship - Sunday, November 4
Semifinal Winners - 12:00 p.m.

Format
The top 7 teams in the conference will qualify for the NESCAC Women's Soccer Championship.  First round games will be conducted on Sunday, October 28, 2007 with the semifinals and championship games conducted on Saturday, November 3 and Sunday, November 4, 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 number one seed will receive a bye in the first round and will host the semifinals and championship game.  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 number one seed. Pairings
Pairings will be announced Saturday, October 27.

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.