River Hawks Punch Ticket to Louisville with Bye Through NCAA DII Field Hockey Quarterfinal

UMass Lowell Earns North Region’s Top Seed, Awaits Winner of Stonehill and American International’s Quarterfinal Contest

LOWELL (Nov. 21, 2010) – The UMass Lowell River Hawks (22-0) have earned a bye through the NCAA DII Field Hockey Tournament Quarterfinals, as announced by the NCAA on Sunday.  As the top seed in the North Region, the River Hawks will await the result of the first round contest between #2 seed Stonehill (14-7) and #3 seed American International (14-7) to see who they will take on in the NCAA Semifinals.
          
The River Hawks’ first game will be played on Dec. 2 at the University of Louisville in Louisville, Ky. as part of the NCAA Division II Championship Festival.
          
From the South Region, Shippensburg (20-1) earned the top seed, followed by #2 Bloomsburg (18-2) and #3 East Stroudsburg (17-5).
          
UMass Lowell is coming off an impressive 6-1 victory over Stonehill yesterday in the 2010 Northeast-10 Conference Tournament Championship.  Senior Liz Day (North Andover, Mass.) was named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player and was joined on the All-Tournament team by classmate forward Sammy Macy (Tewksbury, Mass.) and junior defender Kayla Littig (Carver, Mass.).
          
This marks UMass Lowell’s eighth consecutive appearance in the NCAA Tournament and they will be playing for a chance at their fourth straight trip to the NCAA Title Game.  The River Hawks are searching for the program’s second National Championship and first since 2005.
          
Offensively, UMass Lowell is led by Northeast-10 First Team All-Conference selection Macy, who has broken the school record for points in a season this year with 75 (30g, 15a) and is the program’s all-time leading scorer, currently standing at 219 points (91g, 37a).

Close behind is classmate Katie Enaire (Amesbury, Mass.) with 28 goals and seven assists for an outstanding 63 points on the year.  NE-10 Player of the Year Day has 38 points (12g, 14a) and freshman standout Rachel McCarthy (Reading, Mass.) has tallied 30 (11g, 8a) during her rookie campaign.
          
They are scoring a nation-best 5.14 goals per game and also leading the country with just 0.32 goals allowed per game.  UMass Lowell has outscored opponents 113-7 this season and the stellar defensive corps has helped the River Hawks to out-corner opponents 260-100 on the year.
          
UMass Lowell’s NCAA Semifinal opponent will be determined on Tuesday, Nov. 23 when American International heads to Easton, Mass. to take on Stonehill in the NCAA Quarterfinal.  Check back to GoRiverHawks.com for more information as it becomes available.
        
www.goriverhawks.com