In a 3-0 win last week, the field hockey team marched past Tufts to claim the NESCAC championship and a guaranteed spot in the NCAA tournament. The team, which will host the first two rounds of the tournament, received a first round bye and will face Babson in the second round of the NCAA tournament tomorrow at 11 a.m.
Babson, the winner of the first round Babson-Husson game played on Wednesday, "will be good," captain Ingrid Oelschlager '11 said. "We don't know much about them, but one of our assistant coaches [went] to watch the [first round] game to get an idea of their tendencies."
In the game against Tufts last Sunday, Oelschlager led the Polar Bears with two goals, while first year Olivia King also scored a goal.
The goal was King's first of the year, and she could not have picked a better time to get it. Nineteen minutes into the championship game, King slapped a shot past the Tufts goalkeeper and propelled the Polar Bears into a lead they would never relinquish. Ten minutes later, Oelschlager scored, sending Bowdoin into halftime with a 2-0 advantage.
The second half was a deadlock with the two determined teams fighting for the upper hand, but Oelschlager scored her second goal with 18 minutes left to seal the score at 3-0.
"They weren't very tight on me in the circle, so I had more scoring opportunities than usual," Oelschlager said. "It was a great game though, and our defense was great. It was the first time this season the Tufts offense has really been shut out."
"We were disappointed with the way we played against them in the regular season," Coach Nicky Pearson added. "We had to make, and come up with a better game plan, and we executed that so much better. It was definitely the best game we've played all season. Tufts has a very talented forward, and [Senior Captain] Shannon Malloy did a wonderful job of closing her down."
While Tufts did have opportunities to score, senior goalie Emily Neilson "came up with some good saves," Pearson said.
After the championship game, postseason awards were given out by the NESCAC conference. Oelschlager and Ella Curren '12 were both named First Team selections, while seniors Emily Neilson and captain Shannon Malloy and junior Katie Herter made Second Team.
Pearson set a conference record, as she collected her seventh Coach of the Year award; she garnered unanimous approval from her peer NESCAC coaches, who voted on the award.
But before blowing past Tufts, Bowdoin had to contend with an Amherst squad that put up a considerable fight.
After goals from Herter and Cathleen Smith '13 gave the team a first-half lead of 2-0, Amherst surged back in the second half and tied the game 2-2 to force overtime.
Initially the outlook was bleak for the Polar Bears, as the Lord Jeffs maintained pressure early in overtime, eliciting a desperate save from Neilson.
However, the game ended abruptly when Herter slipped the ball into Amherst's net after an initial penalty corner shot was blocked.
"Obviously, we'd rather have not had it be so close," Oelschlager said. "But it was a good lesson. It was a high pressure, high risk game, with both teams really fighting to continue their seasons."
As for the upcoming tournament game, Pearson is excited.
"We know who our opponent is, and we're starting to prepare for the team. We're trying to do the things we're doing well better and look at the things on the weekend that we weren't happy with."