Wagner, Lafayette and Delaware Lift Conference Titles on a Wild Saturday
Three conference titles, three champions, and none of them did it the easy way. Well, one of them did. But we’ll get to Delaware.
Wagner are NEC champions after a 3-2 overtime win over Sacred Heart. The top seeds hosted the final at noon ET, and it went the distance. Wagner got here with a 2-0 semifinal win over Rider, while Sacred Heart needed overtime to beat Quinnipiac 2-1 in the other semi. The final went the same way: tight, tense, and settled in overtime. Wagner held their nerve at home, and the NCAA auto-bid is theirs.
Lafayette are Patriot League champions, and they might be the best story of the day. They beat Boston University 2-1 in the final, also at noon ET, to complete a season that keeps getting better. The Leopards are now 17-2 with eight straight wins, regular-season champions for the first time since 2012, and they swept the league’s major awards this week: Katie Gibb as midfielder of the year, Lena Thedrian as defender of the year, and Addison Kahn as goalkeeper of the year. They beat Holy Cross 4-0 in the semifinal. Boston University, who edged American 1-0 in theirs, made them work for it, but Lafayette are a team built from the back, and they don’t give much away.
Then there’s Delaware. The Blue Hens defended their MPSF title with a 6-0 win over UC Davis at home in Newark, and it wasn’t close. Delaware are the top seeds and the defending champions, and they played like it. UC Davis had earned their place the hard way, beating Queens 3-1 in Friday’s semifinal despite a 3-12 season, but the final was a step too far. Delaware swept the conference awards this week too, with sophomore forward Livia van’t Hek named MPSF Offensive Player of the Year, and five Hens on the All-MPSF team. Back-to-back titles in a league that’s only in its second year of field hockey. That’s how you build a programme.
For our money, Lafayette are the side to watch in the NCAA Tournament. A 17-2 record, a defence that barely concedes, and all three major individual awards in the squad is a serious combination.
Two finals still hadn’t posted a score anywhere we checked by late Saturday night: the Atlantic 10 final between Saint Joseph’s and Richmond, and the MAC final between Massachusetts and Miami. The NCAA bracket is revealed on Sunday night, and those two will want their names in it.
