The William & Mary field hockey team won its first-ever conference tournament crown on Sunday, overcoming a 1-0 deficit to defeat No. 14 Delaware 3-2 in overtime in the Colonial Athletic Association Championship game.
The Tribe improved to 11-7 on the year, and earned the league’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament, while the Blue Hens fell to 13-7, and must await word on a possible at-large bid to the national field.
How it happened
– Delaware controlled play for majority of the first half, but the W&M defense played a strong game to keep the Tribe in it.
– The Blue Hens finally broke through in the 33rd minute, after a shot from outside the top of the circle from Laurien Vink ricocheted off the stick of Femke Strien and in for the 1-0 lead.
– Despite that goal, freshman goalkeeper Kimi Jones (Virginia Beach) made two strong saves and the Tribe defense allowed no goals on four corner attempts.
– In the second half, Delaware took another corner, but Jones was there again to frustrate the attempt and spring her team going the other way for a series of corners for the Tribe.
– W&M broke through with the equalizer in the 50th minute, coming off of another corner. After Cassidy Goodwin (Gloucester) sent the ball in, redshirt-senior Estelle Hughes (Newcastle, NSW, Australia) passed it over to junior captain Christie van de Kamp (Midlothian) for the shot and the score, her eighth of the season.
– Less than 10 minutes later, the Tribe sturck again and took the lead, 2-1. As the W&M attack built, van de Kamp sent a pass over to the back post, where she found classmate Woodard Hooper (Reston) lurking for the shot and the goal. It was Hooper’s team-leading 12th goal of the season.
– After Delaware took a timeout to regroup, the Blue Hens came back on the field with renewed purpose, and forced the attack into the W&M circle. Three penalty corners in quick succession finally led to a goal in the 63rd minute, as Greta Nauck tied the contest 2-2 on a shot from the top.
– W&M called their timeout shortly thereafter, and despite getting the ball into the attacking end, regulation ended with no further action.
– The Tribe was playing in its eighth overtime compared to Delaware’s first of the year, and it showed as W&M controlled play from the start, quickly moving into the circle and generating a corner and two shots.
– In the 74th minute, W&M earned another corner, its seventh of the game. Annie Snead (Midlothian) sent it in to Goodwin, who passed back to Hughes. Hughes, with a defender on her hip, worked around the top of the circle and finally cleared enough space to fire a back-hand shot from in front of one post across to the other post, sliding under the goalkeeper’s foot and setting off a mad scramble in celebration. It was Hughes’ 12th goal of the year, tied with Hooper for the team lead, and her CAA-best fourth game-winner of the season.
All-tournament team
– For her game-winning heroics, Hughes was named the CAA Most Outstanding Player of the Championships. She’s the first from W&M to ever win the award, and earned her second spot on the all-tournament team. Hughes led W&M ont he weekend with five points on two goals and an assist, and scored the game-winner in both matches.
– Also named to the all-tournament team for the second year in a row were Goodwin and van de Kamp. Goodwin scored an assist in the win over Northeastern on Friday, while van de Kamp had a goal and two assists for the weekend.
– Freshman goalkeeper Kimi Jones earned her first all-tournament honor, after playing the tournament with a 0.97 GAA, eight saves, and an .800 save percentage.
Starters
W&M – Kimi Jones, Jenny McCann, Annie Snead, Ashleigh Nottingham, Christie van de Kamp, Estelle Hughes, Cara Menges,Woodard Hooper, Cassidy Goodwin, Jorja Morgan, Haley Hopkins
UD – Lisa Giezeman, Greta Nauck, Michaela Scanlon, Laurien Vink, Lotte de Koning, Ellie Schepens, Sarah Horgan, Tessa Verweijen, Kiki Bink, Emily Kresho, Sydney Rhodes
Notes
W&M won its first-ever conference championship game on its fifth try … The Tribe also set school records for the most overtime games (8) and overtime wins (5) in a season … W&M leads the NCAA with eight overtime games played in 2018 … It was the first CAA Championships game to reach overtime since 2015, and the fifth all-time dating back to 1991 … W&M as a department now has three CAA Champions so far this year, the most in the league … The Tribe has won at least three CAA titles every year since 1987-88, a streak of 32-straight years.
Up next
The NCAA Tournament selections will be announced tonight at 10 p.m. on NCAA.com. William & Mary will await word of either a play-in game opponent, which would be played on Wednesday, Nov. 7; or a first-round selection for Saturday, Nov. 10.
