The No. 6 Virginia field hockey team enters the final chapter of its season this weekend as it hosts the first and second rounds of the NCAA tournament. The seventh-seeded Cavaliers (15-5, 4-1 ACC) drew Iowa in the first round and will likely see No. 2 seeded Princeton the following day. Any loss at this point would spell the end to a magical 2012 campaign.
“I love tournament time,” redshirt senior midfielder Michelle Vittese said. “It’s a lot more fun than the regular season because the stakes are higher and the pressure is on.”
Playing at Home
It was sheer luck that Virginia was selected to host at all. Princeton (17-1, 7-0 Ivy) would normally be the rightful host of these opening-round games, but loose gambling laws in New Jersey caused the NCAA to disallow the state from hosting officially sanctioned tournaments.
“I’ve been in this game long enough to know you can’t expect anything,” coach Michele Madison said. “The [tournament] committee does the best job it can in doing pairings and keeping all the various parameters in check.”
The last two times the Cavaliers were selected to host the opening rounds resulted in trips to the NCAA semifinals. The selection gives the Virginia senior class, including Olympian redshirt seniors Vittese and forward Paige Selenski, another opportunity to leave their home field victorious. As luck would have it the seniors’ last game at Turf Field may also be against the same team, Princeton, that beat the Cavaliers 2-1 to end the regular season.
The Lead Up
Virginia is currently reeling from consecutive losses to Princeton and sixth-seeded Maryland. The Cavaliers have not suffered back-to-back losses at any other point in the season. Sophomore forward Rachel Sumfest is confident the team can get back on track.
“Something we’ve really been focusing on is not taking our bad momentum into the next game,” Sumfest said. “Right now we’re focused on just getting our team chemistry together and working as a unit and hopefully we’ll be able to push the tempo and the momentum in the next game.”
The 5-1 loss to Maryland in the ACC semifinal was particularly heartbreaking, as the Cavalier defense conceded its highest goal total all season despite stellar defensive play in months leading up to the game. Three of Maryland’s five goals, however, came off penalty corners.
“We thought the score was worse than the game actually was,” Vittese said. “Defensive corners were a problem though. [Junior back] Elly [Buckley] and I had some complications in that role and we didn’t really do our jobs four times. We gave up four goals on penalty corners, and that just has never happened to us.”
Vittese hopes to draw as many positives out of the game as possible. “I think what it did was show our younger players a high-stakes game,” Vittese said. “I think as a team we can really learn from it. It shows us how to keep our team chemistry when things get really hard.”
Skill and Experience
Selenski earlier this week was named the ACC Offensive Player of the Year. Selenski’s success this season has mirrored Virginia’s success. The forward has enjoyed one of the top individual seasons in Cavalier history. With postseason games on the horizon, her 64 points already rank third in a single season in program history, and her 26 goals are good for fifth.
Virginia looks to the leadership of its star players to guide the team through these grueling tournament games. Selenski, Vittese, Buckley and sophomore goalkeeper Jenny Johnstone were all selected to the All-ACC team, and junior midfielder Katie Robinson was named to the All-ACC tournament team. Selenski, Vittese and Buckley represent three of 13 Cavaliers who participated in Virginia’s latest NCAA semifinal run in 2010.
“I think the older players really know what’s at stake,” Madison said. “Paige and Michelle have a lot of experience under pressure at the world, national, and collegiate level, and we have three classes of players here that have been to the final four, so that really helps.”
The Field
Connecticut, Penn State and North Carolina round out the other four top seeds, with the Tar Heels earning the top seed overall. With Maryland also making the field, the ACC and the Big Ten each have three schools in the tournament. An ACC school has won the national championship in each of the last 10 years.
The team this week will find it comforting to play on its own turf. “It’s nice to play at home again,” Madison said.
Virginia opens play Saturday with a game against Iowa (14-6, 5-2 Big 10). The Hawkeyes most recently fell 3-2 to Penn State in their conference tournament, a team that also beat the Cavaliers 3-2 at the end of August. Iowa has appeared in the tournament 21 times and have advanced to the final four 11 times.
“When we see a team from the Big Ten, we know the hockey is different, but we just have to stick to our game,” Sumfest said. “They have their system and we have our system.”
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