Friday, the national semifinals of NCAA Division II and II will take place in the southern U.S. — Division II in Gaffney, S.C., and Division III in Lexington, Va.
The D-2 national semifinals will have a heavy Pennsylvania flavor, as three PSAC teams — Shippensburg, Kutztown, and East Stroudsburg — are in the Final Four.
But there’s a pretty good story when it comes to the last of the four teams, St. Anselm College from Manchester, N.H. In the quarterfinal match between St. Anselm and Assumption College, Assumption took a 2-0 lead shortly after the interval, but St. Anselm turned up the wick thereafter.
In the second half, St. Anselm outshot Assumption 20-4. Two of those goalshots, by Amanda Lewandowski and Millie Forster, found the net, sending the match to extra time. It took until the 73rd minute when Millie Forster, a junior from England, scored off an assist from Laurentien van den Akker, a sophomore from The Netherlands.
St. Anselm has a feel-good story within its coaching ranks. Listed as a volunteer assistant coach for St. Anselm is Cheryl Murtagh, who has been a great servant of the game during her career, chiefly for her 30 years as the head coach at Northeastern University.
Now, in Division II, you also have a situation where three teams from the same conference are in the last four. The bracket has Tufts, Williams, and six-time defending champion Middlebury. Middlebury is a big story here, because the Panthers have had the target on its back all season long, and have suffered two defeats this season, to Tufts and Bates College.
Like in the Division III tournament, there’s a pretty good story when it comes to the last of the four teams, Salisbury. Salisbury is finishing off its final season in the
The Gulls are the No. 1 seed in the tournament, and have been coached by Dr. Dawn Chamberlin for 38 seasons. Interestingly, Salisbury’s field hockey program is finishing off its final season in the Coast-To-Coast Athletic Conference after three decades of membership. Next year, in yet another geography-bending bit of conference realignment, Salisbury will be joining the State University of New York Athletic Conference as an associate member in field hockey.
One stated reason is the fact that the C2C only has three field hockey teams as current members: Salisbury, Mary Washington, and Christopher Newport. A number of previous field hockey teams playing in the conference, such as Hood, York, Stevenson, Catholic and Goucher have moved on to other conferences or, in the case of Wesley, closed altogether.
Salibury’s move to the SUNYAC will allow it to compete for an NCAA automatic bid, as it joins Morrrisville, Cortland, New Paltz, Oneonta and Oswego.
Should some great competition.
