INDIANAPOLIS - University of New Hampshire, America East's field hockey champion, is in the 16-team NCAA field and will play at fourth-seeded Duke in the tournament's first round Saturday at 11:30 a.m. The full NCAA bracket was announced on NCAA.com Sunday night.
The Wildcats, who will be making their 10th NCAA appearance overall and second in three years, avoided one of three play-in games as they were deemed one of the top five automatic qualifying teams by the NCAA selection committee. The bottom six AQ squads must play their way into the offical bracket by winning play-in games Wednesday.
New Hampshire (15-6) earned its NCAA berth by beating Albany, 3-2, in the America East title game Saturday to earn the league's automatic bid. Megan Bozek scored on a penalty stroke in that contest and earned Most Outstanding Player honors. The win was UNH's eighth in a row and 14th in its last 16 games.
Duke (14-6) is the eighth-ranked team in the nation, tied for third in the ACC regular-season standings, a league that sent all seven of its teams to the NCAA tournament.
America East has 11 all-time wins in the NCAA Field Hockey Championship, the last coming in 2007 when Boston U. beat Iowa, 1-0, in double overtime.