Lydia Roberts

Denison Field Hockey Opens NCAA Tourney With Johns Hopkins

INDIANAPOLIS, IN - Denison (16-2) collected its seventh North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) tournament title with a 4-1 victory over Ohio Wesleyan in Granville, Ohio, on Saturday, November 7. With the tournament title, the Big Red earned the NCAC’s automatic bid into the NCAA Division III Field Hockey Tournament.
 
Denison will open the national tournament with a first-round game against Johns Hopkins (16-4). The No. 9-ranked Blue Jays earned the Centennial Conference’s automatic bid into the NCAA postseason. This will be only the third meeting between Denison and Johns Hopkins, with the Big Red owning a 2-0 record and their last meeting coming in 2015. Denison is making its second straight and 17th overall NCAA appearance in the national tournament, while Johns Hopkins will make its eighth consecutive and 16th overall appearance. Over the stretch, the Blue Jays have competed in four of the last five national title games.
 
The Denison/Johns Hopkins first-round matchup will take place at 4:00 p.m. in Baltimore, Maryland, on Wednesday, November 11. The winner will head to Tufts in Medford, Massachusetts on Saturday-Sunday, November 14-15, to compete in the second and third rounds. The second-round matchup will feature the Big Red/Blue Jays winner against the defending champion Jumbos. The remaining four teams out of the third round will meet at H.J. McCooey Memorial Field in Geneva, New York, on November 20 and 22 for the semifinals and national championship game.
 
The Big Red, led by 25-year head coach P.J. Soteriades, have gotten strong offensive performances this season from senior Emma Gebhart (Carlisle, MA/Concord Carlisle) and sophomore Lulu Keil (Lake Forest, IL/Lake Forest). Gebhart has a team-leading 28 goals to go along with nine assists for team-best 65 points, while Keil has posted the most assists and the second-most goals for the Big Red with 20 scores and 20 helpers. On the defensive side of the ball, junior goalkeeper Therese Lucian (Mickleton, NJ/Tower Hill School (DE)) has corralled 53 saves and allowed just 15 goals in 969:07 minutes of action for a 0.93 goals-against average, while first-year midfielder/defender Avery Painter (Charlotte, NC/Charlotte Catholic) has recorded a team-high three defensive saves.

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