Courtesy Tufts Sports Information

Box Score

MEDFORD, Mass. - Second-seeded Bowdoin team won its fifth NESCAC championship overall, and fourth in a row, with a 1-0 victory against Tufts in a defense-dominated final of the 2008 NESCAC Field Hockey Championship at Bello Field on Sunday afternoon.

The lone goal came after a Bowdoin penalty corner attempt late in the first half. Junior Kara Kelley (Dedham, Mass.) hit the corner and then joined the scrum in front of the Tufts net. She was perfectly positioned at the left post to push the ball into the cage when it squirted free with 4:14 on the clock. The tally was her second of the season.

The Polar Bears (15-2) gave Tufts (16-1) its first loss of the season. Bowdoin gains the conference’s automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament, where they will defend the national title that they won last fall. The Jumbos await an at-large berth into the NCAA Tournament. Tufts and Bowdoin were the first and second seeds in the NESCAC Tournament, respectively.

The Bowdoin defense shut down Tufts, which entered the game as the top scoring team in the conference. Likewise, Tufts did a good job containing Bowdoin. The Polar Bears finished with a 9-3 advantage in shots. The Jumbos posted a 5-3 edge in penalty corners. Goalkeepers in the game combined for just three saves.

The visitors controlled play in the first half, preventing Tufts from even attempting a shot. Polar Bear leading scorer Lindsay McNamara (Milton, Mass.) hit a post in the middle of the half, one of six Bowdoin shot attempts in the first 35 minutes.

Tufts had more possession in the second half, putting its lone shot on net from a difficult angle by senior tri-captain Marlee Kutcher (Chevy Chase, Md.). The Jumbos had all five of their corners in the second half. On their final corner, leading scorer Tamara Brown (Annandale, Va.) got her stick on a shot, but it deflected just wide.

Bowdoin split goaltending duties as they often do. Senior starter Emileigh Mercer (Newton, Mass.), though she did not see a shot, earned the win by virtue of Bowdoin’s goal in the first half. Sophomore Emily Neilson (Chatham, Pa.) came on for the second half, played among more pressure in front of the Bowdoin cage, and made one save to preserve the win. Tufts first-year Marianna Zak (Concord, Mass.) recorded two saves in the game.

Bowdoin’s senior class finishes 9-0 all-time in NESCAC Tournament play.

2008 NESCAC FIELD HOCKEY CHAMPIONSHIP
Quarterfinals - Sunday, November 2 at Higher Seeds
at No. 1 Tufts 5, No. 8 Colby 1
at No. 2 Bowdoin 5, No. 7 Bates 2
at No. 3 Middlebury 2, No. 6 Williams 1
No. 5 Trinity 1, at No. 4 Amherst 0

Semifinals - Saturday, November 8 at Tufts
at No. 1 Tufts 1, No. 5 Trinity 0 - OT
No. 2 Bowdoin 4, vs. No. 3 Middlebury 0

Championship - Sunday, November 9 at Tufts
No. 2 Bowdoin 1, at No. 1 Tufts 0

2008 NESCAC FIELD HOCKEY CHAMPIONSHIP

Quarterfinals - Sunday, November 2 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 8 at Higest Remainig Seed
11:00 a.m./1:30 p.m.
  Highest Remaining Seed vs. Lowest Remaining Seed
Remaining First Round Winners

Championship - Sunday, November 9
Semifinal Winners - 12:00 p.m.

Format
The top eight teams in the conference will qualify for the NESCAC Field Hockey Championship.  First round games will be conducted on Sunday, November 2, 2008 with the semifinals and championship games conducted on Saturday, November 8 and Sunday, November 9, 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. 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 quarterfinal round games and the lowest remaining seed will face the highest remaining seed.

Pairings
Pairings will be announced Friday, October 31.

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.