Bates women to face Eastern Connecticut State in NCAA Tournament
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Team captains Sara Abbott (left) and Jenna Benson show off their hardware from Sunday’s NESCAC Championship win over Tufts.
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The Bates College women’s soccer team will return to the site of Sunday’s NESCAC championship victory this weekend to face Eastern Connecticut State University in the first round of the NCAA Division III Tournament.
Bates (13-3-1), which defeated Tufts University 2-1 in double overtime on Sunday for its first NESCAC championship, will play the Little East Conference champion Warriors (12-5-2) in the opening round of the 60-team tournament on Saturday, Nov. 12 at Tufts’ Kraft Field 30 minutes after the earlier game ends, or approximately 1:30 p.m.
The winner will face the winner between Tufts (12-3-1) and Johnson & Wales (13-6-1) for the right to advance to the sectionals, which will take place Nov. 19-20.
The NCAA determines its tournament seedings strictly by a computer formula, by which Bates became the fourth-seeded team in the region. The Bobcats’ championship win over Tufts, while guaranteeing them a spot in the NCAAs, did not weigh any more in the formula than did Tufts’ regular-season win over Bates on Oct. 1.
This will be Bates’ fourth trip to the NCAA Tournament, the last coming in 1997, when the Bobcats lost to Colby in the first round, 1-0. In 1996, Bates made it past Bowdoin and Williams to the quarterfinals before falling to Amherst.
To view the complete 2005 tournament bracket, click here.