HAVERFORD, Pa. – The third-seeded Haverford College women's soccer team will get its Centennial Conference Tournament underway against second-seeded Swarthmore this Saturday at 6:30 p.m. That semifinal game between the local rivals will be played at Johns Hopkins after the top-seeded Blue Jays finished with the best record in the Centennial Conference during the regular season.
The Fords (9-5-3, 6-2-2 CC) and Garnet (13-3-1, 7-2-1 CC) certainly do not lack familiarity as they just played to a 110 minute draw this past weekend. In that 1-1 game, Lizzie King gave Swarthmore a 1-0 lead with less than 18 minutes remaining in regulation, but Haverford first-year Saede Eifrig leveled the game at one-all with less than 10 minutes left in the second half.
Haverford will be making its 11th appearance in the tournament era of the Centennial Conference. This year will be sixth time in program history Haverford has entered the tournament as the conference's third ranked team. That last time came when Haverford went on to make its second of back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances during the 2013 season as an at-large selection after an appearance in the Centennial Conference Championship match for the second time in program history. The Fords have won Centennial Conference Championships in 1995 (pre-tournament era) and 2012.
No stranger to the postseason themselves, the Garnet are making their 10th appearances. However, despite playing each year since 1985 the two teams have never met in a postseason matchup. The Fords hold an 18-13-5 record in the all-time series. These Hood Trophy rivals have met on neutral ground just twice, splitting a pair of Seven Sisters Tournament games back in 1988 and 1991.
The Fords have shown a varied attack all season as nine different players have scored multiple goals this season. A total of 13 different players have found the back of the net at least once in 2017. The aforementioned Eifrig scored her team-leading fifth goal of the season in the regular season finale while Grace Mathis has three goals and three assists this season to rank second on the team in points. Sydney West, one of just five players to start all 17 matches this season, leads the team with four assists this season. Anna Dekle (two goals) has also started each contest during the regular season on the offensive end.
Defensively, Taylor Cross – a Centennial Conference Defensive Player of the Week recipient during the regular season – Kelly Brown, and goalie Julie Hanss have also started all 17 matches for the defense. Hanss is coming off a career-best nine save outing against the Garnet and has been a part of nine shutouts the Haverford defense has posted. The defense has been very proficient at limiting opposing attempts as the Fords had outshot their opponents in 16 straight games before Swarthmore held an ever so slight 19-18 edge in shots the last time out.
Swarthmore's Marin McCoy will be the player to watch out for when the Garnet hold the possession. She leads her team with 16 goals and 10 assists this season after assisting on the go-ahead goal when these teams met during the regular season. King, who scored against Haverford last Saturday, and Katie Doughterty each have seven goals for the Garnet to rank second on their team. Ten different Garnet players have started at least 15 matches this season. Goalkeeper Amy Shmoys has helped the Garnet record five shutouts this season. She is allowing just 1.12 goals per game in 2017.
The winner of Saturday's rematch will play the winner of Johns Hopkins and fourth-seeded McDaniel on Sunday at 4 p.m. The Blue Jays and Green Terror will meet in the game prior to Haverford's kick off with Swarthmore. The first semifinal is scheduled for a 4 p.m. start in Baltimore. The winner of this weekend's Centennial Conference Tournament will earn the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.