Cortland Earns 29th NCAA Division III Field Hockey Tournament Berth; Red Dragons to Host Ohio Wesleyan in Opening Round Wednesday
Cortland Sports Information Department
The Cortland field hockey team will play in its 29th NCAA Division III tournament, and its first since 2017, when the Red Dragons host Ohio Wesleyan in a first-round contest on Wednesday, Nov. 10. Game time is to be announced.
Cortland (16-2) finished second in the State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) tournament after losing at top-seeded New Paltz, 1-0, in the conference finals Saturday. Both of the Red Dragons' losses this year have come at the hands of the Hawks. Cortland earned one of seven "Pool C" at-large berths into the 26-team tournament. Those bids are awarded to schools that did not earn their conference's NCAA automatic berth. The tournament consists of 16 automatic qualifiers, three "Pool B" berths to schools not in leagues with automatic bids, and the seven "Pool C" slots.
Ohio Wesleyan (10-5) earned an automatic berth after winning their first-ever North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) title with a 2-1 overtime win at Denison last Saturday in the league championship game. The Battling Bishops will be making their first NCAA Division III tournament appearance since 1995.
The Cortland-Ohio Wesleyan winner will advance to face Rowan University (16-2) in the second round on Saturday, Nov. 13, as part of a four-team regional hosted by Rowan in Glassboro, N.J. Washington & Lee (17-0) will take on the winner of a first-round matchup between Scranton (17-1) and Ursinus (13-5) in Saturday's other second-round game.
Cortland, led by sixth-year head coach Tiffany Hubbard, opened the season with 11 straight wins before losing, 4-2, at New Paltz on Oct. 9. The Red Dragons won their next five games, including a 2-0 SUNYAC tournament semifinal win over Geneseo, before falling in the conference finals.
Cortland won national titles in 1993, 1994 and 2001 and finished second in 1997. The Red Dragons tied for third in 1999 and 2003, placed third in both 1989 and 1996 and were fourth in 1988. In their most recent appearance in 2017, Cortland won its first-round game versus Keene State, 4-1, before dropping a 2-1 decision at The College of New Jersey to tie for ninth place nationally.
Freshman Kierra Ettere (Mahopac/Lakeland) leads the Red Dragons with 25 goals and eight assists for 58 points. Her 25 goals are the third-highest total in school history and her 58 points are tied for the fourth best at Cortland, and are both school freshman records. She scored at least one point in each of the first 16 games in which she appeared. Junior Lily Fox (Northport) has 12 goals and a team-high 11 assists for 35 points and freshman Hanna Corrigan (Barneveld/Holland Patent) has 11 goals and eight assists for 30 points. Senior goalie Megan McGuinness (Carle Place) is 16-2 with four shutouts, a 1.23 GAA and an .802 save percentage.
