2018 ACC Field Hockey Championship Begins on Thursday
Tournament Central | Thursday Live Stats | Game Notes
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The Virginia field hockey team (8-8, 2-4 ACC) will face Boston College (10-8, 2-4 ACC) in the first round of the 2018 Atlantic Coast Conference Field Hockey Championship, on Thursday, Nov. 1 at 11 a.m. The tournament is being held Nov. 1-4 at Karen Shelton Stadium in Chapel Hill, N.C.
The winner of the contest will advance to face top-seeded host-school North Carolina (17-0, 6-0 ACC) on Friday, Nov. 2 at 12 p.m.
The entire tournament will be broadcast to a national television audience on the channels of the ACC Regional Sports Networks as well as the Fox Sports Go app. Live stats will be available through the ACC Tournament Central website with links to all of these amenities posted on VirginiaSports.com.
The No. 5-seed Cavaliers will take on the No. 4-seed Eagles in the opening game of the tournament. Virginia, Boston College and Wake Forest finished the regular-season in a three-way tie for fourth place in the conference at 2-4.
Virginia moved up to No. 16 in this week’s Penn Monto/NFHCA Coaches’ Poll and is No. 13 in the latest NCAA Field Hockey RPI. The Cavaliers, who have played 11 games this season against teams ranked in the top-25 including seven against top-10 teams, have the third highest strength of schedule. Boston College is No. 13 in this week’s poll while UNC remains the top-ranked team in the country.
Senior goalkeeper Carrera Lucas (Brooklandville, Md.) was named the ACC Defensive Player of the Week for the second straight week. Lucas matched her season-high with nine saves in Friday night’s 3-2 double-overtime victory at William & Mary. Lucas currently ranks third in the nation with a .796 save percentage and also leads the conference in saves per game at 5.38.
Senior Greta Ell (Plains, Pa.) scored a pair of goals in the William & Mary game, including the game-winner 36 seconds into the second overtime. Junior Erin Shanahan (Pasadena, Md.) also scored against the Tribe. Ell and Shanahan have scored three goals apiece this season.
A pair of freshmen continue to lead the team in goal scoring in Grace Wallis (Blue Bell, Pa.) and Greer Gill (Virginia Beach, Va.), each having contributed four goals this season. Wallis also leads the team with 13 points.
Virginia is looking to win its second ACC Championship after winning the title in 2016, coming into the tournament that year as the No. 6 seed, the lowest-seeded team to ever win the title, scoring a tournament-record 13 goals over three games played.
Boston College won the regular-season meeting with a 2-0 victory in Newton, Mass. The game was tied 0-0 at the half. Boston College broke the deadlock with 11 minutes remaining in regulation and added an insurance goal in the final two minutes of the game, scoring on an empty net. Boston College took 11 shots while the Cavaliers took six. Lucas recorded five saves.
North Carolina picked up a 3-0 victory over Virginia on Sept. 26. The game, which was rescheduled because of Hurricane Florence, was a defensive battle, with the two teams taking a combined 13 shots. North Carolina scored the game winner 5:48 into the game, scoring after a penalty corner on its first shot of the game. The Tar Heels added a second goal in the first half and capped their scoring in the first five minutes of the second half.
The entire tournament will be televised on the Regional Sports Networks (RSN) with additional coverage provided online via ACC Network Extra in areas outside the television footprint. Tom Werme will handle the quarterfinals on Thursday (Nov. 1) and Sunday’s championship game, with Jeff Fischel on hand for Friday’s semifinals. Leah Secondo, a former three-sport star at the collegiate level and a leading women’s sports analyst for more than three decades, will handle color commentary throughout the tournament. The ACC’s Regional Sports Networks for the 2018-19 season are comprised of FOX Sports South, FOX Sports Florida, FOX Sports Sun, FOX Sports Midwest, FOX Sports Indiana, NESN, YES Network, AT&T SPORTSNET Pittsburgh and NBC Sports Washington.
Single-session tickets are available for $5 for adults. Youth under 18 and students from an ACC school with a valid ID can enter for free.
The NCAA Selection Show will stream live online on NCAA.com on Sunday, Nov. 4 at 10 p.m. The Cavaliers are looking for their 23rd trip to NCAA Championship and their 11th in head coach Michele Madison’s 13 seasons at Virginia.