A record-setting offense will lead the Haverford College field hockey team into Saturday's match-up against Johns Hopkins University in the second of two Centennial Conference tournament semifinals played at top-seed Ursinus College.
Haverford (13-4, 8-2 CC), third in the final regular season standings, plays second-seed Hopkins (11-6, 8-2 CC) in Collegeville following the first semifinal which pits No. 3 Ursinus (16-1, 10-0 CC) against fifth-seed Washington College (9-9, 6-4 CC). The Shorewomen advanced to the final four with a thrilling, 2-1, overtime victory over fourth-seed Gettysburg College in the quarterfinal Wednesday afternoon.
The two semifinal winners will square off for the league title in Sunday's 2 p.m. championship game at Ursinus.
Haverford ran through the regular season setting team records for wins, goals (80), assists (47), points (207), and shots per game (26.65). Within conference statistics, the Fords rank second – behind nationally-ranked Ursinus – in scoring average (4.65 goals per game), goals, goals per game (4.71), scoring margin (+2.56), shots per game and penalty corner opportunities per game (15.29). Among NCAA statistical leaders, the Fords are second in penalty corner chances, and fourth in goals per game and scoring margin.
The offensive outburst this season has been spearheaded by senior Alex Waleko, junior Juliana Morgan-Trostle and sophomore Mary Hobbs. Morgan-Trostle leads the team with 19 goals, Waleko is next with 17 followed by 16 from Hobbs, all single-season career bests. Adding in Margaret Selsor's 11 tallies, this quartet has accounted for 63 of the team's 80 goals (79 percent) this fall.
The attack will need to be at its best Saturday against the Blue Jays who defeated the Fords, 4-3, earlier in the regular season on Hopkins' home turf. Selsor scored all three goals for Haverford in the loss while Morgan-Trostle, Waleko and Hobbs got off only four shots combined.
In that game, Haverford out shot its host 30-18 and owned a 19-6 edge in penalty corner chances, but Hopkins goalie Kim Stein finished with 12 saves and got extra help with a defensive save to hold off the Fords.
Since that early-October defeat the Fords are 7-1 including a five-game win streak to close out the regular season. Besides the Hopkins loss, the only blemishes on Haverford's record have come against No. 17 Rowan (5-2), Ursinus (7-0) and No. 2 Lebanon Valley (4-3).
If the Fords, playing in their second conference playoff in program history, are to advance to their first tournament final, they'll need the big guns to have a greater impact than in the earlier meeting with the Blue Jays while goalie Maggie Cronin and defenders Roxanne Jaffe, Christie Quake and Sarah Crist – tied for third in the league with six defensive saves – hold down the fort in the defensive third of the field.