No. 4 field hockey (16-3, 9-1 NESCAC) punched its ticket to the NCAA Div. III semifinals last weekend, besting NESCAC rival No. 13 Wesleyan (12-6, 6-4 NESCAC) 3-2 on Saturday and No. 12 Messiah (16-6) 2-1 on Sunday. The Ephs, who hosted the second and third rounds of the championship at Williamson Field, concluded their home season undefeated.
“It’s crazy, I’m still trying to wrap my head around the fact that we hosted the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight this weekend — and we won,” said co-captain Meaghan Boehm ’25.
Although the competition was fierce, the Ephs were able to hold on to early leads in both games over the weekend. Boehm broke through the Wesleyan Cardinals’ defense early in the first period, scoring the first goal at 11:09, assisted by forward Kiki Higgins ’26.
Higgins solidified this lead just seconds later, scoring twice to bring the Ephs up 3-0 in the 12th minute and marking her eighth and ninth goals of the season. “She’s just such a threat on offense,” said defender Pilar Torres ’26. “She’s a really special player because she rises to the occasion and plays better when the stakes are higher.”
“We had a great first quarter,” head coach Alix Barrale said at a postgame press conference. “We capitalized in the offensive circle [and] Kiki was clearly instrumental in that. [The lead] gave us a cushion that we clearly needed … [when] Wesleyan woke up and started playing with more speed and tenacity.”
The team was glad to see Higgins and fellow forward Claire Colvin ’27 back on the field after both had been injured for several games. “I think energy was just coursing through our team,” goalkeeper Ellie Smith ’28 said. “We haven’t really had the opportunity to have both of them on the field at once… Having them back on the forward line was huge for us.”
In the second and third periods, the Cardinals’ offense launched relentless attempts to even the score, sinking two shots, but the Ephs’ defense held strong.
Torres highlighted Smith’s grit as key to the team’s success. “Ellie’s been awesome all season long for us, but this weekend she did especially well,” she said. “There were goals scored against us, and as a goalie, that’s really hard to shake off. What’s impressive to me is how she bounces back from that.” Torres also credited Linda Bibeau ’25 as a crucial defensive presence on the team.
Boehm also praised Smith, who was named to the All-NESCAC First Team and awarded NESCAC Rookie of the Year. “[She] just built a brick wall on the defensive end of our field,” Boehm said of Smith’s five key saves.
Smith continued to be an unyielding presence on Sunday, blocking seven shots from the Messiah Falcons and protecting the Ephs’ early lead once again.
The Ephs dominated in the first period, with Torres finding the net at 8:49, assisted by Higgins, and then again at 12:19. The team’s defense fought to hold on to this 2-0 lead in later periods, clearing a total of 13 corners and 17 shots from the Falcons. The Falcons increased the pressure in the final quarter, and the Ephs conceded a goal in the 50th minute. Despite this blow, the team held on for the remainder of the match, triumphing in the Elite Eight after preventing Messiah’s attempts to score an equalizer.
The victorious Ephs will travel to Washington & Lee University, where they will face Tufts in the semifinals on Friday. The team has played Tufts twice this year, beating them once in the regular season but falling to them in an overtime shootout in the NESCAC semifinal.
“For Tufts, it’s personal,” Smith said. “We really, really want to win that game. They took NESCACs away from us, so we’re not going to let them take the NCAA championship.”
“At the end of the day, between these teams — they’re all so good — it’s just who wants it more out there,” she added. “I think grit and determination are what will help us win.”
Boehm, Torres, and Smith all highlighted the words of Barrale — who earned her 300th career win and became the winningest coach in the College’s history earlier this season — in the face of the steep upcoming competition. “Coach Alix likes to say, ‘It’s not about who we play, it’s about how we play,’” Boehm explained.
“It’s about trusting our training and what we’ve done the entire season,” Smith added. “Our only losses have come from the teams that are all advancing to this Final Four tournament, so we’ve played the strongest schedule in the league and we know how to play against these hard teams. We just need to be confident.”
If the Ephs advance to the finals, they’ll battle Middlebury or Salisbury — teams that dealt the Ephs two of their three losses this season — for the NCAA Div. III Championship title.
Torres and Boehm both said that winning the national championship is the team’s ultimate goal. “We shouldn’t be shying away from saying that is something that we want as a team because we are a strong team,” Boehm said. “We’ve been doing so well and we’ve been working so hard. That is not a goal that’s out of our reach.”
