Happy Halloween!

On a beautiful fall day in Denver, CO with Halloween festivies already beginning and the final weekend of NCAA regular season play approaching, things are looking good for this field hockey fan.

As the season winds down, who is dressing up as Cinderella? Syracuse perhaps? Maryland as "Goal-liath"? Who will be the dark knight?

As teams prepare to honor their seniors and fit the final pieces of the puzzle together, I expect to see great field hockey this weekend. Find a game near you and see for yourself!

Ohio, Maine, New Hampshire and Rhode Island will have their own shot at creating a field hockey fairytail this weekend as they complete their high school state championship tournaments.

Congratulations and good luck to all the Seniors playing in their last regular season games. Enjoy your opportunity to show what you've learned over the past 4 years and most importantly have fun competing!!

Have a great weekend,

Alli

SMA Celebrates OT goal

Deline and teammates celebrate the winning goal in Monday nights Championship game.

St. Mary's Academy Upsets Kent Denver for State Championship!

Congratulations to St. Mary's Academy (CO), on their 2-1 Overtime victory and first State Championship in program history!!!

St. Mary's went up 5 minutes into the game on a goal by Liz Deline and held the lead until there was a little under 3 minutes left in regulation. Freshman Lucy Dikeou scored Kent Denver's lone goal on a 1 v keeper breakaway that sent the ball, goalie, defender and Lucy into the back of the net.

In overtime, both teams had their chances at the State Title, but St. Mary's came out on top. Another goal by Deline with 2:51 left in OT was all they needed to secure the championship. Check out the Denverpost.com for a slide show of the game and celebrations.

In Pennsylvania field hockey, teams are entering District semi-finals today and tomorrow. District III AA semi's are between Lancaster Mennonite and Donegal on one side of the bracket and Oley Valley and Palmyra on the other. Winners will meet 11/1 for the District Championship.

District III AAA semi final match ups are between Penn Manor and Lower Dauphin, and Central Dauphin vs. Hershey with the winners also meeting on 11/1.

District XI semi finals will be played tomorrow, 10/29.

Have a great Tuesday!

Alli

Congratulations VT State Champs!!

CVU (left), Harwood and Rice captured Vermont State Championships in their respective divisions this weekend. Harwood completed their season undefeated with an outstanding record of (15-0-0), Congratulations!!!

#1 Maryland (right) handed #5 UNC their 2nd largest loss in program history on Saturday as they beat them 7-0 and claimed the top seed in the ACC tournament as well as the regular season title.

With an OT win over Indiana, and a decisive 3-0 win over Michigan, #9 Penn State captured the Big Ten regular season title. This was confirmed when # Michigan State lost in OT to #10 Iowa.

We have one final week of regular season play before conference tournaments begin, you never know what could happen!

Yours in Sport,

Alli

UNC vs MD: the rematch

The Tar Heels and Terrapins will for the second year in a row, play in the deciding game of the ACC regular season. Last year, both teams were undefeated heading into the match and Carolina came out on top beating Maryland 3-0 and claiming the ACC regular season title, the #1 seed for the ACC tournament, and the #1 NCAA seed.

This year, Maryland holds the #1 ranking while Carolina is at #5. Both teams are 3-1 in the conference. The match is set for Saturday at 1pm at College Park, MD. If you're in the area I promise it will be well worth the effort to go see it live!

Vermont State Championships will also take place this weekend. In the first division, Hartford will play CVU, in the second, the undefeated Harwood team will take on Woodstock, and in the third division, Rice will battle Stowe for the State title.

St. Mary's Academy from Colorado will play Kent Denver on Monday, Oct 27th for the Colorado State Championship. St. Mary's beat the #1 seed Smoky Hill 2-1 in overtime to reach the final while Kent Denver beat Mountain Vista 4-1 to advance.

Best of luck to all teams competing, check back Monday to see results!

Alli

Colorado State Semi's Tonight

The first State Champion of 2008 will come from Colorado. Due to the small number of teams competing in the CHSAA, their state tournament is much smaller than most. The Semi-finals will be tonight 10/22 and the finals will be Monday Oct 27th at 7pm. Here is the tournament bracket. Smoky Hill will play St. Mary's Academy in the first game followed by Mountain Vista and Kent Denver in the 2nd to determine the 2008 finalists. Best of luck to all teams still competing!!

Upset City!!

There were major upsets across high school and college field hockey over the weekend, leaving all respective play-offs wide open. In college action, #9 Uconn became the first team this season to beat #1 Syracuse. In the Big East battle, Uconn's Melissa Gonzalez scored almost 4:30 into the game and would eventually count as the game winner.
#7 UNC was successful in their back to back games this weekend beating #13 UVA 3-0 and #6 JMU 1-0 all without their top scorer Dani Forword, who will miss the rest of the season with a torn ACL. The upperclassmen on this Tar Heel team refused to back down after losing Forword as each Senior put in a goal this weekend and Junior Mel Brill added a huge defensive save in the last minute of regulation against JMU to hold onto the double win weekend.
Unranked Michigan upset #4 Michigan State 1-0 while unranked Ohio State defeated #8 Iowa 2-0. The Big Ten standings, results and schedules can be found here: http://http://bigten.cstv.com/sports/w-fieldh/stats/2008-2009/confsked.html.
Old Dominion continues to struggle this season after losing several foreign players from last years team. They are now (6-10) after losing two close matches this weekend against #2 Maryland and #5 Duke. ODU lost both games 2-1, but put up a good fight against two very strong teams.
High School field hockey teams are preparing for District and State play-offs which brings together Emmaus HS from Pennsylvania and Eastern HS from New Jersey for their annual inter-state match up. Both teams benefit from this highly competitive game without the threat of elimination heading into play-offs. Emmaus held the #1 ranking on Hockeypower.com heading into the game but Eastern came out on top thanks to a stroke by Melanie Dawson just over 10 minutes into the game. As all good teams do, Emmaus will learn more from this loss than they have learned from every win this season, hopefully earning them yet another State Championship.
Keep us posted on games in your area and best of luck to everyone still competing.

Yours in Sport,

Alli

October Madness

Play-offs are here and to no surprise there have already been some major upsets. Penn Manor (Millersville, PA) who had yet to lose a game all season lost its Lancaster Lebanon semi-final game against Donegal who then went on to beat the historic DIII powerhouse, Warwick and take home the trophy. At this point, all the teams still standing are good and on any given day anyone can beat anyone, hence the madness.
Out in Colorado, since they have such a small group of schools that play, have already begun state play-offs. Mountain Vista, a team who only won 5 games two years ago beat the reigning state champion Cherry Creek last night in the quarter-finals. Check out the write up and take a close look at the sticks the girls are using... C:\Documents and Settings\atanner\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\OLKA4\Mountain Vista field hockey takes on Grandview High School Stories Highlands Ranch YourHub_com (2).mht
Emmaus now (19-0) won the Lehigh Valley Conference and is set to play Eastern (New Jersey) tomorrow, 10/18, in a friendly match in preparation for their respective state tournaments.
Wyoming Seminary avenged last weeks loss to Lackawanna Trail yesterday by beating them 3-0 in their league championship. See what I mean by any given day...
In college action, #1 Syracuse will host Big East rival Uconn on Saturday. I am excited to get the details on this game as these teams will no doubt bring out the best in each other.
#7 UNC will host neighbors #13 UVA and # 6 JMU in a tough back to back weekend in Chapel Hill.
Check back Monday for results!

Have a great weekend,

Alli

Championship Season!!

Public High Schools across the country are heading to play-offs this week! (Private schools continue regular season play through Nov.) In Pennsylvania league semi finals are today with the finals set for Thursday Oct. 16th. Emmaus (17-0) looks to conquer the LVC title as Penn Manor (16-0-1) has its sights set on the Lancaster-Lebanon crown.
Colorado begins its State play-offs on Thursday, Oct 16th, followed by NY on Oct. 23, CT on Oct 24th, and NJ on Halloween Oct. 31st.
Between Leagues and Districts Pennsylvania's Emmaus will take on New Jersey's Eastern in a classic interstate battle. The teams offer to prepare each other for the tougher battles they will face in their respective states without the elimination factor. A great idea in my opinion, what do you think? Fair? Smart? Unnecessary?
We have the most exciting month of High School Field Hockey approaching us, be sure to check back as teams battle it out to stay alive for another round.

The new Collegiate rankings were released this morning with Syracuse claiming the #1 spot with a perfect record thus far 14-0. Maryland, Wake Forest, Michigan State and Duke round out the top 5, check here for the complete rankings http://nfhca.org/.

Good Luck to all the teams competing in post season play!!

All the best,

Alli

Congratulations USA U-21 National Team!!

Congratulations to our Under-21 Women's National Team Jr. Pan-Am Gold Medalists!!!! USA Field Hockey was not joking around when they started their Beijing and Beyond campain after Qualfying for the 2008 Olympics in April. The success of our U-21 National Team is proof. This is exciting news for field hockey players, fans and coaches everywhere as we continue our international impact.

Katie O'Donnell, Captain and University of Maryland stand out was the Tournament Top Scorer as she led the USA to an over-time victory over Chile in the final match. With the Gold Medal, USA qualifies for the 2009 BDO Jr. World Cup hosted right here at home in the USA.
Check out the US Field Hockey link for details, pictures and box scores from the entire Jr. Pan-Am Games

GO USA!

Alli