Courtesy Bowdoin Sports Information

Box Score

BRUNSWICK, Maine - The Bowdoin College field hockey team claimed their second-straight NESCAC Championship with a 1-0 win over Middlebury College on Sunday afternoon.

The fifth-ranked Polar Bears (15-1) earn their third NESCAC Championship overall and clinch the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. Middlebury (14-3), who ranked fourth in the latest national poll, will likely receive an at-large bid to the Tournament when pairings are announced on Sunday evening.

Bowdoin controlled the pace in the early going, taking the first eight shots of the game. Middlebury netminder Meghan McGillen single-handedly kept her team in the contest, brushing aside six saves in the first 10 minutes to keep the Polar Bears off the scoreboard. Bowdoin continued to pressure the goal throughout the period, racking up 17 total shots and
11 corners before intermission. But McGillen made 13 saves overall in the stanza as the game headed into the second half tied at zero.

Bowdoin continued to control the tempo early in the second period, and finally broke through with 21:54 remaining, as a hard shot from outside the circle by Val Young was deflected in front by Lindsay McNamara to the left of McGillen and into the cage for a 1-0 Polar Bear lead.

Middlebury earned their first corner of the game with nine minutes to go, but Bowdoin's Val Young exploded off the line to disrupt the play and keep the Panthers off the board. The Panthers could only muster a single shot in the second period and two total for the game as the Polar Bear defense stifled all chances.

Kate Leonard made one save in the victory, earning her seventh shutout of the season. Bowdoin has not allowed a goal in their last six games, holding a scoreless minute streak of 429:20. The Polar Bears have also won 20 consecutive home games dating back to October of 2004. McGillen finished the game with 17 saves for the Panthers.

With Sunday's victory, Bowdoin now has three NESCAC Field Hockey Championships to their credit (2000, '05, '06), equaling Williams College for the most in the seven-year history of the Tournament.

"Our team would like to dedicate Sunday's victory to Taryn King and her family," according to Bowdoin head coach Nicky Pearson. "Throughout the past year, their courage has been an inspiration to us and will never be forgotten."

2006 NESCAC FIELD HOCKEY CHAMPIONSHIP

First Round - Sunday, October 29 at Higher Seeds
No. 7 at No. 2
No. 6 at No. 3
No. 5 at No. 4

Semifinals - Saturday, November 4 at No. 1 Seed
No. 1 vs. Lowest Remaining Seed
Remaining First Round Winners

Championship - Sunday, November 5
Semifinal Winners

Format
The top 7 teams in the conference will qualify for the NESCAC Field Hockey Championship.  First round games will be conducted on Sunday, October 29, 2006 with the semifinals and championship games conducted on Saturday, November 4 and Sunday, November 5, 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 28.

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:

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.