Congratulations 2024 College Division III Conference Winners

Photo by Avery Henningsen

In the earliest conference tournament of the fall, Husson took home the Central Maine Collegiate Field Hockey Conference (CMCFHC) trophy back on November 3. The Eagles upset top-seeded Thomas in a 3-2 overtime thriller and defended their title of reigning conference champion (formerly the North Atlantic Conference).

Husson dominated their opponent, University of Maine at Farmington, in the semifinals with a 12-0 shutout. Faith Tillotson and Kyla Havey each tallied a hat trick, while Tillotson’s three goals came in the span of just over three minutes. With their spot secured in the championship, the Eagles would face Thomas in a rematch of the 2023 NAC final.

Senior Karlie Ramsdell put the Eagles up 1-0 in the first quarter, only to be matched by Thomas’ Maci Freeman in the second. The second half was déjà vu, as Husson took a 2-1 lead in the third quarter with a goal from junior Maddie Perkins, only to find the score evened up again by the Terriers, who scored in the final frame. After two scoreless overtime periods, the match went to shootouts, where attempts by Perkins, Tillotson, and Ramsdell were made, making Husson the 2024 CMCFHC champions. 

Photo by James T Vanrensselear

Johns Hopkins has been at the top of the Centennial Conference for a long period of time, and while many have tried to dethrone them, no team has been able to do so. In the regular season, the Blue Jays were handed their first Centennial Conference loss in at least three years, by an overtime stroke from Swarthmore. But on Saturday, November 9th, Johns Hopkins claimed their sixth consecutive Centennial Conference title after taking down the Ursinus Bears, 4-1, and yet again solidified their seat atop the conference. 

After earning a first round bye as the number one seed, Hopkins didn’t play until they hosted No. 15 ranked Bryn Mawr in the semi-finals. The Owls, who earned an at-large bid into the NCAA Tournament, have been one of the few teams who have put more pressure on the Blue Jays in recent years, and have been close to taking them down. While they had hoped to do that last Thursday, Johns Hopkins had other plans. A goal from Lila Slattery in the first quarter would open the scoring for the contest, and then a third quarter deflection during a penalty corner from Megan Chang, would prove to be the game winning goal to send the Blue Jays back to the championship game. 

While the first quarter started off scoreless, it was ultimately a goal from Slattery that yet again, would open up the scoring. Slattery would score again later in the contest, along with Kaitlin Coward and Emily Amsden. Ursinus had four penalty corners to Hopkins’ one, but a strong performance by the Blue Jays defensive penalty corner unit, shut down the attack of Ursinus, an area the Bears had been rather successful in during the regular season. 

Hopkins comes into the tournament 17-3 overall. They have lost the past several years in the NCAA Championship Game to Middlebury, so the Blue Jays will not only be hoping to find themselves back in the championship game, but alo this year, hopes to win it.

The final ever Coast-to-Coast Conference (C2C) Championship game ended in fitting fashion – in an overtime shootout thriller. 

It was a well matched and exhilarating game between No.1 Salisbury and No. 6 Christopher Newport. Maddison Steele opened the scoring with a goal for Christopher Newport just two and a half minutes into play. Next, Salisbury would score two unanswered from Katelyn DeMonda in the span of 45 seconds –  her second coming from a penalty stroke – to take a 2-1 lead. Kate Abendschoen found the back of the net for the Captains in the third quarter, sending the game into overtime. 

After two rounds of 10-minute sudden-victory overtime, and a last minute defensive save by senior defender Isabel Larrabee, a victor had still not been declared. As both teams walked over towards the 25-yard line, Salisbury made a big substitution – taking out goalkeeper Abby McIlvain, who played a solid game, and putting in freshman goalkeeper, Merfie Lawson. This substitution would turn out to benefit the Sea Gulls, who would win the shootout 4-3.

The now 15-2 Sea Gulls have lost only to two teams this year – Shenandoah and Rowan.

Photo by Reily Rogers

In a high-scoring affair that saw six consecutive goals, Mary Washington clinched the inaugural Collegiate Field Hockey Conference (CFHC) championship crown on Sunday afternoon.

After defeating Centre 6-0 in the semifinals, the only thing standing in the way of Mary Washington’s trophy was Rhodes – their only conference loss of the season. The meeting had ended with a 2-1 double overtime loss for the Eagles back on October 19. 

Right off the bat, the championship match was full of excitement. Rhodes earned a penalty stroke just 52 seconds in, finishing on the attempt and taking an early 1-0 lead. This was all the spark that Mary Washington needed to get going, as the Hawks went on to score six straight goals, starting with two from Grayson Scott in just the next three minutes. Scott would go on to have her most prolific day on offense, tallying a career-high four goals. Emma Bernard and Mackenzie Proffitt would account for the remaining two goals for the Hawks. After Mary Washington took the 6-1 lead after three frames, Rhodes put out an explosive fourth quarter effort that resulted in three goals, but it was not enough. The Hawks claimed a 6-4 victory and locked up their CFHC crown and NCAA Tournament berth.

Photo by Claudia Iacono

A 2-1 overtime victory over the University of New England lifted Roger Williams to their first-ever conference title and first NCAA Tournament appearance in program history. 

Since the program’s transition to varsity status in 2013, the Hawks have slowly been building up to this moment. Their 2023 season ended with a heartbreaking 2-1 loss to Endicott in their first-ever conference championship game appearance. This time around, Roger Williams defeated Western New England in the semifinals, 2-0, then followed it up with a win over UNE in the final. Junior Chelsea King tallied both goals in the win over the Golden Bears, while Maddy Monahan and Abigail Stevens found the back of the net against the Nor’easters. Stevens’ tally two minutes into overtime was the golden goal for the Hawks, who hoisted the CNE trophy for the first time.

Photo by Benjamin Gajewski

A transfer from the SUNYAC, SUNY Geneseo picked up their first Empire 8 trophy in their first season in the conference. The Knights had not won a conference title since defeating SUNY Cortland in 2019.
Geneseo upended reigning Empire 8 champion Hartwick, 4-0, to seal their spot in the NCAA Tournament. The Knights had three first half goals from Ella Greico, Shannon Cunningham, and Sam Lewis, followed by a fourth goal at the 31-minute mark from Ada Roe. The stats sheet was heavily in favor of the victors, as they outshot the Hawks 26-6. Lewis was honored as the Empire 8 Most Valuable Player.

Photo by Scott Wasser

Johnson & Wales captured their fourth consecutive Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) championship with a win over Simmons.

In the top-seed spot after going a perfect 12-0 in GNAC play, Johnson & Wales started off with a quarterfinal match-up against No. 8 seed Dean. Three goals from graduate student Megan Salsinha propelled the Wildcats to a 3-0 shutout over the Bulldogs. Next up was a semifinal against No. 4 St. Joe’s (Maine), as this time sophomore Rayne Millett stepped up to tally two goals in a 2-1 victory. The final challenge for Johnson & Wales was No. 3 seed Simmons, who had taken the Wildcats all the way to shootouts earlier in the season. Salsinha was incredible on attack once again, helping her team overturn a two goal deficit with a hat trick. Zofia Bangs scored as well in the 4-2 victory, while freshman Ava Gaudette finished with a career-high three assists. Sophia Brea had seven saves on the day. 

Unsurprisingly, Salsinha was named the GNAC Tournament Most Outstanding Player, joining teammates Brea, Millett, and Haley Budenas on the All-Tournament Team. Johnson & Wales will play next in the NCAA Tournament, currently sitting with a 18-3 record and on a 17-game win streak.

For the second year in a row, Susquehanna took down Scranton in a tight contest to win the Landmark Championship. 

The River Hawks found themselves needing to rally after going down 2-0 in the third quarter, and that’s exactly what they did. Taylor Rothermel found Susquehanna’s first goal of the match in minute 49, kicking off a momentum switch. First-year Mady Quigley picked up a second and third goal in the final five minutes, as the River Hawks soared to a 3-2 victory. Quigley was crowned MVP of the Landmark Championship. Scranton goalkeeper Gianna Travia put forth a valiant effort, making 13 saves and facing a whopping 21 penalty corners. 

The 15-5 River Hawks have reached double digit wins in seven of their last eight seasons under head coach Allison Fordyce.

For the first time in program history, Ithaca are the Liberty League Champions, after defeating Rochester 2-0. 

Senior Juliana Valli tallied both goals for the Bomber this past Sunday, and was named the Most Outstanding Performer of the Tournament. The Bombers defense was on the top of their game in the championship, not allowing Rochester a single shot on goal.

The match before was a similar story, with Natalie Descalso notching two goals in a 2-0 shutout over Skidmore. The Bombers did not give up a shot on goal in this match as well.

The Bombers, now 15-5, head back to the NCAA Tournament for the second straight year, this time from an automatic bid. It will be the 18th time that Ithaca will appear in the NCAA Tournament.

The Keene State Owls are Little East Conference (LEC) Champions for the 15th time in program history. The win follows four straight seasons of falling in either the LEC semifinal or final.

A fourth quarter blitz helped propel the Owls to a win over Plymouth State and a spot in the LEC final. Down 2-1 with 15 minutes to play, Irini Stefanakos, Grace Bazin, and Jennifer Erikson all scored in under 10 minutes of each other to take 4-2 victory.

Keene would face Vermont State Castleton in the championship game, a game they had lost 6-1 in the regular season. Carrying over their momentum from their fourth quarter surge earlier in the week, the Owls responded to an early Castleton goal by putting up three of their own in the first quarter. Meghan Dailanes, Molly Murray and Bazin all found the back of the net in an eight minute span. The now 16-6 Owls will head to the NCAA Tournament with their automatic bid.

Photo by Cole Grady

Westfield State continued to make history this past weekend by defeating Bridgewater State to claim the MASCAC championship title. In her second season, head coach Carden Brown has helped lead the Owls to their first MASCAC title since 2014. 

With the exciting win, Westfield State will make its first NCAA Tournament appearance since the Owls hosted the inaugural NCAA Division III Tournament Final Four in 1981.

The Owls needed three wins to claim their title, first taking down Framingham State, 1-0, with the lone goal from Kaleigh Murphy. After losing to Worcester State 1-0 in the regular season, Westfield stepped up in the MASCAC semifinal to flip the 1-0 score in their favor. Erin Lane notched the game-winner off of a penalty corner with just three minutes left in the match.

The final test came against Bridgewater State. The Owls went up early, but conceded the equalizer in the second quarter. It was Murphy again who brought it home for Westfield in the fourth frame for a 2-1 victory. Midfielder Abby Clark was named the MASCAC Tournament MVP.

Photo by Derek Behrenshausen

For the first time in MAC Commonwealth history, the York College field hockey team has claimed the title of champions. The Spartans were finally able to break Messiah's 16-year streak after their narrow 1-0 loss in the 2023 MAC championship.

York made it to the final after defeating Stevenson 3-1; a match-up they had lost in shooutouts earlier this season. Next up would be Messiah, the team that handed the Spartans their only other regular season conference loss – a heartbreaking 3-2 overtime defeat.

It was a battle between Messiah and York, and proved again to take more than the 60 minutes to determine a victor. Halfway through overtime, goalkeeper Belle Fields made a huge stop for the Spartans, visibly shifting the match's momentum. Riding off that energy, senior Riley Buschert ripped a shot on net, sealing the win for York. Buschert took home tournament MVP honors, and added goal number ten to her 30 point season. 

No. 10 ranked York will play next in the NCAA Tournament, holding a 16-5 overall record.

The Ducks secured their second consecutive, and seventh overall, MAC Freedom title on Saturday against No. 1 seed Arcadia.

In large part by the efforts of defender and tournament Most Valuable Player, Alysin Fink, Arcadia was held to only four shots on the game. They scored early in the first quarter, but Stevens responded in the second with a goal from Sophia Cozza. The game deciding goal would come with three minutes left in regulation, when the Ducks earned a penalty corner. The ball was inserted to senior Sarah Korczukowski, who did not hesitate, as she fired the ball past the Arcadia defensive penalty corner unit.

After winning the past six NESCAC titles (in tandem with the NCAA championship), No. 1 Middlebury was upset in the semifinals by No. 5 seed Bates to miss the NESCAC championship game. Williams, the No. 2 seed coming into the tournament, was also upset in the semifinals, by No. 3 Tufts. With the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds both knocked out of the tournament, one thing was clear coming into Saturday’s championship; a new champion would be crowned and it was anyone’s game.

After defeating Middlebury in the last two weeks of regular season play, Tufts was ready for anything in the conference tournament. All three games for the Jumbos were decided in shootouts, adding to the thrill of picking up their third NESCAC title in program history. First, Tufts took down No. 19 nationally ranked Amherst in the quarterfinals, going 3-0 in shootouts with three stops from goalkeeper Lydia Eastburn. Then, in the semifinals, the Jumbos forced overtime with No. 3 Williams after a fourth quarter goal from Andrea DelGiudice. Scoreless after two overtime periods, Tufts again prevailed in shootouts, making two attempts to the Ephs' one.

Finally, Tufts would face No. 14 Bates in the final. After a scoreless four quarters and two rounds of overtime, the Jumbos were faced with yet another shootout. Delgiudice and Kylie Rosenquest both converted their attempts for Tufts, but it would be first-year Hannah Murray's goal and a huge stop from Eastburn that finally declared Tufts the 2024 NESCAC Champions.

The Jumbos are making their 15th NCAA Tournament apperance after winning the NESCAC for the first time since 2016.

Babson picked up their fourth straight NEWMAC title and third consecutive against MIT on Saturday night. Ranked 7th in the nation, Babson is now 18-3 and on a 13-game win streak as they head into the NCAA Tournament.

Finishing 9-0 in the NEWMAC, the Beavers extended their regular season title to include the tournament title after wins over Wellesley and MIT. Senior Jessica Evans and junior Caroline DiGiovanni each scored twice against the Blue in a 5-0 shutout. The championship match was a Beaver showdown once again, as Babson blanked MIT, 3-0, with goals coming from Berit Sharrow, DiGiovanni, and Laney Reed. Senior Jessica Evans was named the Most Outstanding Player of the tournament.

Photo by Atena Mojibian

The reign over the NJAC reached four years for Rowan, who extended its win streak to double-digits with a narrow 1-0 shutout of The College of New Jersey (TCNJ). The Profs had six titles from 2000-2020 and now boast four in four years.

Ranked 25th nationally, Rowan went 6-0 in NJAC play during the regular season and began its title defense with a 4-0 win over Stockton in the semifinals. The championship match against TCNJ would be decided by a single goal, which was scored by freshman Mia Foti in the fourth quarter. 

After a tough stretch of four consecutive losses to ranked opponents halfway through the season, the Profs are now hot off of ten straight wins, including over No. 2 Salisbury.

After winning back-to-back crowns in 2021 and 2022, the 2023 NCAC Tournament was a heartbreaker for Ohio Wesleyan. The Battling Bishops were 17-0 in the final before a 1-0 overtime loss to Denison spoiled a perfect season. Any lingering memories of that defeat were set aside in this year’s edition, however, as Ohio Wesleyan flipped the script with a 1-0 shutout of Denison to claim a third NCAC crown.

The Bishops didn’t concede a goal in two NCAC tournament games, beating DePauw by a 4-0 margin in the semifinals before the 1-0 win. The title game margin was identical to the regular season matchup between Denison and Ohio Wesleyan, just with a different goal scorer for the Bishops.

Colleen McMenamin tallied twice in the semifinals against DePauw while Meg McCarthy had a one-save shutout. McCarthy notched another shutout in the final — a tense, close game — but wasn’t called upon to make a save thanks to a stout defense. The score was deadlocked at the break but Avery Slucher finally scored just over two minutes into the third off of a penalty corner.

Slucher’s goal earned her the tournament’s MVP award. She was joined on the All-Tournament Team by Mary Powers, Emma Moregson, McMenamin, and McCarthy. The Bishops are 17-4 and bring a four-game winning streak into the NCAA Tournament.

A historic year for No. 9 Shenandoah only continued in Winchester, Va., as the Hornets — the top seed in the ODAC — set a new program record for wins at 18 with a 4-1 victory in the championship against No. 13 Lynchburg.

Shenandoah, winners of 16 straight, took down Washington & Lee by a 5-2 margin in the semifinals behind two goals apiece for Mairead McKibbin and Madison Short. Lynchburg set up a much-anticipated title game with a 3-0 shutout of Bridgewater. The two ranked ODAC sides had met in the regular season finale in which Shenandoah nabbed the top seed with an overtime victory.

The final was on pace for a similar finish, knotted at one at halftime as Claudia Lenahan's first quarter goal was canceled out by Lynchburg's Olivia van Metre in the second. The tide turned dramatically though as Shenandoah rattled off three unanswered goals and outshot their opponents 12-3 after the break.

Goalkeeper Taylor Swann, Farren Winter, Elise Velasquez, and McKibbin all featured on the All-ODAC Tournament Team. Shenandoah is 18-2 entering the 2024 NCAA Tournament.

Photo by Erin Locascio / EDL Photography

For the third year in a row — and 18th time overall — No. 8 Cortland claimed the State University of New York Conference (SUNYAC) title. The Red Dragons breezed past Oswego in the semifinals, 7-0, then eked past New Paltz, 2-1, with a late goal.
Cortland had won five straight games to close the regular season — one in which it finished a perfect 4-0 in SUNYAC play — and carried that momentum into the playoffs. The Red Dragons’ offense was firing on all cylinders in the opener against Oswego with three goals from Keirra Ettere and two from Hanna Corrigan. They outshot Oswego, 48-0, and piled up 27 penalty corners.

The championship proved to be a much tighter affair. New Paltz had beaten Oneonta, 2-1, in the other semifinal and was looking to avenge an earlier 5-1 defeat to Cortland. Corrigan opened the scoring in the seventh minute only to see New Paltz’s Hannah Ackerman answer within a minute. The 1-1 deadlock remained until the final five minutes of the match, when Sydney Reinisch scored the game-winner off of a penalty corner that Corrigan — the tournament’s MVP — logged the assist on.

The SUNYAC All-Tournament team included Corrigan, Reinisch, Ettere, and goaltender Emma Morgan. The Red Dragons bring a seven-game winning streak into the 2024 NCAA Tournament and sit at 17-1 overall.

After breaking through in 2023 to win the Atlantic East title — its first in three tries — St. Mary's College of Maryland carried that momentum into its new home, the United East Conference. The top-seeded Seahawks, fresh off an unbeaten conference regular season, swept the four-team field and topped No. 3 Keystone, 5-1, in the final.

St. Mary’s leaned on senior captain Charlotte Horn as she earned Tournament MVP honors with a two-goal performance in the final. The Seahawks beat fourth-seeded Penn State Harrisburg in the semifinals, 2-0, with Brenna Ziegler and Josie Shermeyer scoring. Ziegler’s goal was particularly notable as it pushed her to a milestone century of points, second all-time in program history.

The defense was stifling in that match and carried the momentum into the final, where it held Keystone to one goal on just four shots on cage. The Seahawks fell behind just 49 seconds into the game, but didn’t trail for more than a minute as Horn equalized. She added another in the first before Sofia Lopez, Briana Allen, and Emma Watkins all tallied.

Images courtesy of Marywoord Athletics, Avery Henningsen/Husson Athletics, James T Vanrensselear/Johsn Hopkins Athletics, Salisbury Athletics, Reily Rogers/Mary Washington Athletics, Claudia Iacono/Roger Williams Athletics, Benjamin Gajewski/SUNY Geneseo Athletics, Scott Wasser/JWU Athletics, Susquehanna Athletics, Ithaca Athletics, Keene St Athletics, Derek Behrenshausen/York Athletics, Stevens Athletics, Cole Grady/Westfield St Athletics, Tufts Athletics, Babson Athletics, Atena Mojibian/Rowan Athletics, OWU Athletics, Shenandoah Athletics, Erin Locascio/EDL Photography, St Mary's Athletics