Nov. 6, 2007
Full NCAA Tournament Bracket
University Park, Pa. - The Penn State field hockey team was selected for an at-large bid into this year's NCAA Tournament and will take on Virginia in the first round of the tournament on Saturday. The Nittany Lions, who finished the year ranked ninth in the country according to the final STX/NFHCA Top 20 poll of the year that was released earlier today, will be making their 24th all-time NCAA Tournament appearance, which is tied for the second-most in the country. Penn State will play its first and potential second round games in College Park, Md. with Maryland as the host. The Terrapins will take on Old Dominion in the other first round game on Saturday.
Saturday's matchup between the Nittany Lions and Cavaliers will be the second of the year. The Nittany Lions defeated the Cavaliers 3-1 back on the opening weekend of the season on August 26 in Charlottesville, Va. Penn State also defeated Old Dominion the day before their win at Virginia. In the game earlier this year at UVA, Penn State went down 1-0 early to the Cavs on a goal in eighth minute before rallying back with three unanswered goals for the 3-1 victory. Kiersten Wood scored both the game-tying and game-winning goals in the contest, both of which were assisted by Jen Long, while Britney Long also added a goal. Penn State holds an 11-3 advantage over Virginia in the all-time series.
This will be Penn State's third straight NCAA Tournament appearance and its fifth in the last six year. This will be Penn State's fourth straight trip to College Park for the NCAA Tournament as the Nittany Lions were sent there last year as well as in 2005 and 2003. Penn State's last five NCAA Tournament games have all been played on the campus of Maryland. Last year, Penn State also matched up with an ACC team in the first round, defeating North Carolina 4-3 in a come-from-behind victory before falling to Maryland, the eventual national champions 1-0 in a hard-fought game in the second round.
Penn State remained tied with North Carolina for the second-most NCAA appearance in the country with 24 now. Old Dominion leads the nation with 27 now.
The Nittany Lions were one of four Big Ten teams to be awarded bids to the NCAA Tournament. Regular season champion Michigan, Big Ten Tournament champion Iowa as well as Michigan State all join the Lions in this year's tournament.
Penn State will take on Virginia at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday in the second game. Maryland and ODU will tangle at 11:00 a.m. Sunday's second round game will be at 2:00 p.m. Ticket information for the first and second round games will available on Maryland's athletics website, umterps.com.