Field Hockey Wins NCAA Berth

The wait is over.

The Harvard field hockey team has earned its first NCAA Tournament berth since 1991.

The Crimson (12-5, 6-1 Ivy) will fly down to Winston-Salem, N.C., in the next few days to play fourth-seeded Wake Forest (16-3) on Saturday. The time has not yet been determined.

The team found out the news at approximately eight o'clock last night. The players and coaches had gathered together in a player's room to watch the selection show broadcast live over the Internet.

"There's so much emotion right now," co-captain Maisa Badawy said. "We were really the bubble team, and we didn't know either way what was going to happen. We all thought we should be together. We wanted to find out all together, all at once."

Harvard is the first Ivy team ever to make a NCAA Tournament at-large. The expansion of the field from 12 to 16 teams in 1999 helped to make tonight's good fortune possible.

Judging by the latest National Field Hockey Coaches Association (NFCHA) poll, the No. 16 Crimson was squarely on the bubble, in need of one of the eight at-large berths in the 16-team tournament.

But the poll had no relationship to the actual selection results. Harvard was effectively the 13th seed in the tournament. Only the top four teams are officially seeded.

Tournament seedings are often skewed by regional considerations, but since all first-round games are at southern host sites this year, the Crimson's standing must have been entirely based on its merit.

"We're finally getting the respect," Badawy said. "We've earned it. We put in the time."

The NCAA Tournament at-large bid was Harvard's just reward for its best regular season in nine years.

Since winning its first Ivy game of the season against Penn, staging a dramatic comeback from a 2-0 deficit to win 3-2 in overtime, the Crimson has never looked back, winning a school-record six Ivy games on the season.

Although Harvard's Ivy title chances fell apart after a narrow 2-0 defeat at the hands of seven-time defending league champion Princeton, the Crimson knew full well that its hopes for an at-large berth were still alive.

Harvard won three of its remaining four games in convincing fashion, with its only loss coming at the hands of Boston University on one day of rest in horrific weather.

Following up on its convincing 4-0 win over Columbia on Saturday, the Crimson will look to take its program to new heights with its first-ever win in the NCAA Tournament next Saturday.

"We haven't been there since 1991," Badawy said. "Win or lose, we're just at a whole other level right now."

In its only other NCAA appearance nine years ago, Harvard fell, 3-0, to Boston University.

All five of the Crimson's losses and none of its 12 wins this season are against other teams in the field of 16.

But Harvard has been competitive in all five of those losses. Three of the losses were by one goal, and none were by more than three. The Crimson backs and keeper Katie Zacarian have held strong against every challenge they have faced.

The closest Harvard came to beating another tournament team was when it took No. 7 UMass to double overtime before falling 1-0.

Harvard and its first-round foe Wake Forest have not had a single common opponent this year. The Demon Deacons were the third-best team in the ACC, the nation's strongest conference.

Two teams ranked above Harvard in the NFCHA poll were denied spots in the tournament, No. 12 James Madison (12-9) and No. 15 Ohio State (12-8).

The selection committee used the typical criteria of ratings-percentage indices and records versus common opponents to determine the seeds.

Before last night's announcement, the last three at-large berths for the tournament appeared to be relatively up in the air.

On October 16th, the NCAA Selection Committee released a poll indicating that New Hampshire and William and Mary were the clear front-runners for two of remaining at-large berths, while Ohio State, James Madison and Harvard were neck-and-neck for the third.

In the stretch run after the release of that poll, Harvard went 4-2, while both Ohio State and James Madison played at or below .500. That likely made the Crimson the sure choice for the last bid. The seedings indicate that Harvard would have even been picked over New Hampshire.

But that unpleasant selection discussion can be set aside now. Harvard has a game to play on Saturday. If the Crimson finds a way to shut down the Deacon offense and break through for a couple goals, Harvard would move on to face either Big Ten champion Michigan or William and Mary on Sunday.

The team that advances, along with the three other regional winners, will travel to Old Dominion in Norfolk, VA, for field hockey's national championship.