Review info
• About us
• Subscriptions
• Advertising

By Tiffany N. Perry

The Oberlin women’s field hockey team won four of their last five games to set a school record with nine conference wins.

The Yeowomen finished the regular season with a 9-3 NCAC mark, putting them in a three-way tie for first place with The College of Wooster and Wittenberg University. This is the first time in the NCAC’s twenty-year history that field hockey has had tri-champions.

Because of tiebreakers based on points, Wittenberg and Wooster were granted the first and second seeds in the conference tournament, giving them home matches against Oberlin and Denison University, seeded third and fourth respectively, on Saturday in the NCAC semifinals.

Field hockey teams get fewer points for an overtime win than a win in regulation, and one point for an overtime loss as opposed to none for a regulation loss. Oberlin had three conference overtime victories, giving them fewer points overall than Wooster, who had one overtime win and one loss, and Wittenberg, who did not go into overtime in the NCAC.

The winner of the NCAC finals will capture the conference’s automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.

On Saturday, Oberlin concluded the regular season with a non-conference game against DePauw University. The DePauw Tigers outpaced the Yeowomen 2-0, boosting the Tigers to a record of 10-5.

DePauw scored in both halves, while sophomore goalkeeper Siv Tang had eight saves for Oberlin.

Despite the regular season-ending loss, the Yeowomen have performed consistently well this season (with an overall record of 10-6).

“This is the best that we’ve done in the past,” head coach Deb Ranieri said.

Last Thursday, Oberlin clinched a share of first place in the NCAC with a 3-0 victory over Kenyon College (4-8 NCAC, 6-10 overall).

Kenyon nearly scored with 28 minutes on the clock when Tang left the cage in an attempt to push the ball out of the circle.

The Yeowomen regained control as sophomore Rosemary Mudry, on a pass from junior Jaime Johnson, put a shot past the Ladies’ goalie at 25:34 in the first half for a 1-0 lead.

Following her lead, both sophomore Christine Castilla and Johnson sent the ball in during the second half for a 3-0 win.

On Oct. 18, the team traveled to Denison University for another crucial conference contest. The game went into overtime, with Oberlin coming out on top 3-2.

First-year Samantha Krykostas sent the ball into the net for Oberlin’s first point of the game in the second half, then sophomore Meg Reitz set up first-year Callie Gropp to tie at 2-2. Fifty-six seconds into overtime Castilla took the game-winning shot on an assist from Krykostas.

Though they ended up without a home game in the NCAC semifinals, the Yeowomen are looking forward to another opportunity to face Wooster, who defeated Oberlin twice this season.

“We just need to stay really psyched up,” first-year Annie Chow said. “When we play our best, we play as team and communicate.”

The Yeowomen take on the Fighting Scots in the semifinals tomorrow at 1 p.m. at Wooster.