Thursday’s Other Semifinals: Saint Joseph’s Chase a Sixth Straight A-10 Crown, Westfield Defend the MASCAC
Thursday’s semifinal card is bigger than one article could hold, so here’s the second half of it. The Atlantic 10 and the MASCAC both play for a final on Thursday, and both have a defending champion with a target on their back.
In Richmond, the Atlantic 10 tournament is at Cary Street Field, hosted by VCU, and it starts with the team everyone is chasing. Top-seeded Saint Joseph’s, 9-9 overall but a perfect 6-0 in conference play, face fourth-seeded Davidson at 11 a.m. ET. The Hawks have won the last five A-10 tournament titles and eight of the last nine, and they’ve reached ten straight championship games. They clinched the top seed with a 7-0 rout of La Salle, and they beat Davidson 5-1 when the two met on 2 October. Davidson got here the hard way, scoring a 7-1 win over Lock Haven to take the final spot through a three-way tiebreaker. They’ve got nothing to lose, and that’s exactly what makes them dangerous.
The second semifinal, at 2 p.m. ET, is a rematch nobody needed to wait for. Second-seeded Richmond, 11-6 and 5-1 in the league, face third-seeded VCU, 8-9 and 4-2, on VCU’s own field. Richmond beat VCU 4-1 at Crenshaw Field on 30 October to take the two seed, with four different Spiders scoring. Doing it twice in six days, away from home, against a team that knows your game inside out, is a different test entirely. The winners meet in Saturday’s final at noon, with the conference’s automatic NCAA berth on the line. All three games stream on ESPN+.
Up in Massachusetts, the MASCAC semifinals are on Thursday too. Top-seeded Westfield State, 14-4 and 9-1 in the league, host fourth-seeded Framingham State at 7 p.m. on Alumni Field as they begin their title defence. Framingham got here with a 3-2 win over Fitchburg State. In the other semifinal, second-seeded Worcester State, 9-8, host third-seeded Bridgewater State, 11-7, at 4 p.m. Bridgewater are coming off a 9-1 quarterfinal win over Salem State, built on a five-goal game from junior Samantha Souza. A player in that kind of form changes a semifinal. The winners meet in Saturday’s championship game at the highest remaining seed.
Two conferences, four semifinals, two finals on Saturday. Thursday night in American college hockey is going to be busy.
