Women's Lacrosse Championship Field Announced

Trinity Earns Top Seed for First Time

HADLEY, Mass. – Trinity College has earned the top seed and will have home field advantage for as long as it plays in the 2010 NESCAC Women’s Lacrosse Championship. The Bantams, who secured the number-one seed for the first time in program history, will host a quarterfinal game on Sunday, May 2, along with Amherst, Bowdoin and Colby, with all games taking place at 12:00 p.m. The Lord Jeffs, Polar Bears and Mules all finished tied with the Jumbos of Tufts at 6-3, however the former three teams gained home field advantage via conference tie-breakers.

Trinity (12-2, 7-2 NESCAC) locked up the top spot in the conference standings last weekend with a 10-5 victory over Bates, as the Bantams held head-to-head advantages over any team that could catch them with only one game remaining in the regular season. Trinity hoped to add one more win to its best showing in NESCAC competition since tournament play began in 2001 but could not get past Amherst, falling by a final of 5-4. The loss was only the second of the season for the Bantams and snapped a four-game winning streak. Top-seeded Trinity will look to return to the semifinals for only the second time when it hosts eighth-seeded Bates (7-7, 3-6 NESCAC) on Sunday. It was still up in the air this week whether the Bobcats would be back in the playoffs for the second year in a row after a loss to Bowdoin on Tuesday, however Wesleyan’s 17-13 win over Connecticut College Friday afternoon put Bates in regardless of the outcome of its match at Colby. The Bobcats went the extra mile though, downing their Maine rivals by a 10-7 score for their first win over the Mules since 1997. This will be the first time that Bates and Trinity have met in the NESCAC tournament.

While it was pretty clear that Trinity had the number-one seed in hand heading into Friday’s action, the day ended with a logjam at the second spot when Amherst, Bowdoin, Colby and Tufts all finished the regular season with identical 6-3 records. Applying conference tie-breakers, Bowdoin and Colby were 2-1 against the other three teams in the grouping, and when compared against each other the Polar Bears claimed the second seed thanks to a 14-7 decision over the Mules on April 7. With Colby in the three spot, it meant that Amherst and Tufts were battling for the final first round home game, and the Jeffs had the advantage against the Jumbos with an 11-8 victory to open the season on March 13. Bowdoin (10-5, 6-3 NESCAC) will face seventh-seeded Williams (9-6, 4-5 NESCAC), last year’s runner-up to Colby, in what will also be the first playoff meeting between the two. Just last Saturday the Polar Bears went to Williamstown and escaped with a 13-12 victory in triple-overtime against the Ephs. Bowdoin has not appeared in the semis since 2006, the year the Polar Bears made their only trip to the conference finals.

Two-time defending NESCAC champion Colby (11-3, 6-3 NESCAC) will rekindle its postseason rivalry with Middlebury (8-6, 5-4 NESCAC), the sixth seed, this weekend in the first round. The Mules and the Panthers have combined to win all of the previous nine conference crowns, as Middlebury won the tournament in each of the first seven years it was held. These two teams have faced each other six times in the postseason, and although Middlebury owns the series lead at 4-2 it is Colby that has gotten the best of the Panthers recently. The Mules won the regular season outing between the two by the slimmest of margins with an 11-10 overtime victory on April 3 in Vermont. Although Middlebury finds itself in uncharted territory - on the road in the first round for the first time ever - the Panthers appear to have a bit of momentum, recovering from a three-game skid with a three-game wining streak that was capped with an 11-10 decision over Williams on Friday. Colby stumbled to Bates in the season finale with the aforementioned 10-7 loss, a setback that snapped a four-game winning streak. It will be interesting to see which of these semifinal regulars moves on when they face off for the first time in the first round on Sunday.

The remaining quarterfinal contest will feature a rematch from last year’s first round when fourth-seeded Amherst (10-4, 6-3 NESCAC) takes on fifth-seeded Tufts (11-3, 6-3 NESCAC). Last spring, top-seeded Tufts earned its first tournament victory with a 14-11 win against Amherst in the opening round. This season, the Jeffs got the best of the Jumbos to start the season with an 11-8 win in Medford on March 13. Amherst enters the championship riding a three-game winning streak, most recently downing Trinity (5-4), and has shown the ability to win close games with a 4-1 mark in contests decided by two goals or less. The Jumbos, meanwhile, own the league’s best offense and have been winners in 10 of their last 11 games, the lone loss during the stretch coming at Middlebury last Saturday, 13-9. On Friday, Tufts not only had to overcome delays on the Maine Turnpike just to get to its game at Bowdoin but also had to recover from an early 6-1 deficit to the Polar Bears in order to post an 11-9 win. Amherst has the advantage from a historical standpoint in tournament play at 2-1, as all three previous meetings have taken place in the first round. Once a regular in the conference final, the Jeffs’ missed out on the semifinals for the first time ever with their loss to the Jumbos last spring.

2010 NESCAC WOMEN’S LACROSSE CHAMPIONSHIP
Quarterfinals - Sunday, May 2 at Higher Seeds
No. 8 Bates at No. 1 Trinity - 12:00 p.m.
No. 7 Williams at No. 2 Bowdoin - 12:00 p.m.
No. 6 Middlebury at No. 3 Middlebury - 12:00 p.m.
No. 5 Tufts at No. 4 Amherst - 12:00 p.m.

Semifinals - Saturday, May 8 at Highest Remaining Seed
Highest remaining seed vs. Lowest remaining seed - 12:00 p.m.
Remaining first round winners - 2:30 p.m.

Championship - Sunday, May 9
Semifinal winners - 12:00 p.m.