Gulls in NCAA Field of 24, Heading to Utica College

BEVERLY, Mass. – After earning the automatic qualifier to the NCAA tournament by virtue of their Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) championship, Endicott will travel to Utica College to take on the Pioneers in the first round of the NCAA field hockey championship on Wednesday at 4:00 pm.

Fans traveling out to Utica should expect ticket prices of $5 for adults and $3 for students at Charles A. Gaetano Stadium. 

This is the second consecutive trip to the NCAA tournament for Endicott, who enter the tournament with a 15-4 record. They made program history last year by reaching the dance for the first time before falling 2-0 at Keene State. This year they earned their trip to the tournament with a 2-1 overtime victory over Nichols Saturday in the CCC finals.

The Pioneers (14-5) are the champions of the Empire 8 Conference and are also making their second NCAA appearance in program history. They earned the spot by defeating Stevens Institute of Technology in the E8 conference game. Along the way this year, Utica defeated both Rochester and Skidmore, two teams that earned at-large bids into the field.

"We're excited for the bid and to represent ourselves out of region," said Endicott field hockey coach Jodi Cipolla. "I think it's a great draw and I think we'll match up really well. Utica does have a potent offense, so our D will have to step up as they always do and play a great game."

Utica has not been to the tournament since 2005, while the entire core of Endicott's team has big-game postseason experience from a season ago.

The tournament field is made up of 24 teams, with eight of them earning a first-round bye and sixteen teams contesting first-round games on Wednesday.

The winner of the Endicott and Utica matchup will travel to Middlebury College on Saturday to play DePauw University (19-1), which received a first-round bye. Top-seeded Middlebury received the other bye in this region and will host the second and third rounds this weekend.