#4 Field Hockey to Host Lafayette in NCAA Tournament First Round on Friday

The Saint Joseph's field hockey team, ranked fourth in the nation and winners of four consecutive Atlantic 10 championships, will host Lafayette in the First Round of the 2024 NCAA Division I Field Hockey Championship at Ellen Ryan Field on Friday.
 
Game time between the Hawks and Leopards is set for 11 a.m.; the winner will take on the winner of Friday's second game between #8 Boston College and #13 Princeton on Sunday at noon for a spot in the national semifinals. All three games will be played at Ellen Ryan Field.
 
Saint Joseph's (17-3) earned the Atlantic 10's automatic berth in the tournament after a 2-1 win over #15 UMass in the Atlantic 10 title game at Ellen Ryan Field on Saturday. An early Julia Duffhuis strike was canceled out by a Minutewomen goal early in the third quarter, but Sol Borensztein put the Hawks back on top with less than 12 minutes to go and the SJU defense made it stand up, holding the visitors at bay to clinch the program's seventh league title in eight years.
 
Lafayette (14-6) claimed the automatic bid out of the Patriot League with a 2-1 overtime upset of top-seeded American on Saturday. Stella Malinowski converted a penalty stroke with five and a half minutes to play in regulation to tie for the Leopards before Lea Good scored on a penalty corner just less than four minutes into the extra frame to give Lafayette its first league title since 2012.
 
The Hawks and Leopards last met in 2007, with SJU taking a 4-2 road victory.
 
Saint Joseph's played seven games against six teams in the bracket, posting a 4-3 record; the Hawks earned victories over Delaware, Duke, UMass and Virginia while falling to UConn, Harvard and UMass.
 
Ticketing and streaming information will be released in the coming days; check SJUHawks.com and the Hawks' social media channels for more information as it becomes available.

This news article originally appeared on sjuhawks.com.