2007 Championship Central
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. ? The 2007 America East Field Hockey Championship, hosted by Boston University at MIT’s Jack Barry Field in Cambridge, Massachusetts, begins Friday, November 2, and two teams will be hunting for their first America East title. Two others hope to nab another conference championship and earn a berth into the NCAA tournament. Click here for PDF release.
Second seeded University at Albany (14-4, 4-1 America East) and the third seeded University of Vermont (12-6, 3-2) are both gunning for its first America East Field Hockey Championship. Either the Great Danes or the Catamounts will have to go home Friday night, though, as the semifinal round pits the two teams together at 2:30 p.m. Albany won the first match-up this season, 1-0, on October 6.
The Great Danes, ranked 15th in this week’s NFHCA/STX Division I National Poll, won nine of their last 10 games, with their only loss in that stretch coming to conference foe Boston University. The only goals Albany and junior goalkeeper Ashley Ross allowed in conference play were three to the Terriers, shutting out the rest of the conference, 10-0. Sophomore Nicole Savage and senior Michelle Simpson lead Albany offensively with 31 and 30 points, respectively. Savage has six game-winning goals on the season. Newcomer Anouk Vandenberg distributed the ball very well during her rookie campaign, dishing out a conference-high 12 assists at a rate of .67 per game.
Vermont closed out its season also on a strong note, winning six of its last eight games, to complement the program’s best start in recent memory (5-0). The Catamounts, who led America East in offense in 2006, are again paced by senior Danielle Collins. Collins became the school’s single season and career leader in both goals and points this year. Collins leads the conference in shots per game (3.94), points per game (1.89) and goals per game (0.83), and could be a lethal threat in the tournament. On the other end of the field, junior Kim Striegler is arguably one of the best defenders in the league on a backline which allows just 1.44 goals per game.
The first semifinal on Friday will showcase the number one seed, Boston University (15-5, 5-0), against the fourth-seeded University of New Hampshire (9-11, 2-3). The Terriers hope to win their third-straight championship, and seventh overall, while the Wildcats would like to win their second America East title, the first of which UNH won in 1998. The previous game between the Terriers and Wildcats came in this season’s conference-opener for each squad, a 4-1 Boston U. win on Jack Barry Field.
The Terriers, ranked 13th nationally, enter the tournament on a three-game winning streak, outscoring rivals 7-1 during that period. The last time Boston U. lost was on October 17 at sixth-ranked Connecticut. Senior Sarah Shute, recently selected to play in the Division I Senior All-Star Game, is the spark plug of the top-ranked offense in America East with 34 points this season on 15 goals and four assists. The team as a whole averages 2.75 goals per game, while the defense, led by senior Sarah Hudak and freshman goalie Kim Kastuk, allows just 1.20 goals per game.
New Hampshire lost three consecutive games to end the season, two of which were to teams in the national top 16. This is the Wildcats’ 13th appearance in the conference postseason tournament, and first since 2004, where they have a 5-11 record. The last time UNH defeated Boston U. was a 3-2 conference game in 2003 which was played on Jack Barry Field. This New Hampshire team is battle-tested having played in four overtime games this seeason, including a stretch of three consecutive games against Northeastern, Maine and Dartmouth. Senior goalkeeper Margaux Shute held down the fort in all twenty games, playing all but 3:38 of the regular season.
If Boston University and Albany meet in the final on Sunday, it would be the third 15th-ranked opponent the Terriers have played this season. They are 1-1 against those teams. The possible match-up would also be the sixth contest Albany has played against a top 15 team. A trip to the championship game would be a first for the Catamounts and the first since 2000 for the Wildcats.
The 2007 America East Field Hockey Championship Banquet will kick-off the tournament on Thursday night on the Boston University campus. The end of the year individual awards will be announced at the banquet, along with the all-conference, all-rookie and all-academic teams. At the end of the tournament, an all-championship team will be named as voted by the four head coaches at the championship.
2007 America East Field Hockey Championship
at Jack Barry Field (Cambridge, Mass.)
Semifinals, Friday, November 2
No. 1 Boston University vs. No. 4 New Hampshire, 12 p.m.
No. 2 Albany vs. No. 3 Vermont, 2:30 p.m.
Final, Sunday, November 4
Winner of Semifinal 1 vs. Winner of Semifinal 2, 1:30 p.m.