After winning its second Patriot League title in history, the Field Hockey team now knows who and where it will be playing in the first round of the NCAA tournament this weekend. And it won't have to travel very far.
The No. 7 ranked Eagles will face Iowa Saturday in a first-round clash in College Park, Md., at the field that for several years has been the Eagles' home away from home. Maryland, the No. 3 seed in the tournament, is hosting the Eagles, Hawkeyes and Delaware Blue Hens, who play the Terrapins in the other first-round match in the regional.
The winners of those two matches will play Sunday, with a trip to the national semifinals in Winston Salem, N.C., on Nov. 19 and 21, awaiting the winner.
The Eagles, who went 18-2 on the year, including no losses in five Patriot League regular-season matches and two PL tournament games, should have all they can handle in the Hawkeyes.
Iowa went 5-1 in the Big Ten regular season, 13-7 overall, before losing in the conference championship to No. 5 Michigan.
The programs' only previous meeting came in 1996, when the Hawkeyes defeated the Eagles, 4-2.
Should the Eagles advance, they'll likely face the Terrapins, who are the third seed in the tournament behind top-seeded North Carolina and second-seeded Wake Forest. Maryland is 15-5 on the season, with one of its losses coming at the hands of the Eagles on Oct. 3, a 3-1 affair that was the Eagles' most notable win of the season. Delaware, Maryland's first-round opponent, is 15-6.
The Eagles have won 16 straight in a streak dating back to Sept. 5, when they lost, 2-0, to North Carolina. Their other loss came in the second game of the season, a 3-0 drubbing at the hands of Connecticut.
With a 2-0 win against Richmond, the Eagles are 2-2 versus tournament opponents.
Last season, AU won its first PL title and then defeated Quinippiac, 4-1, in a play-in game, before losing to Duke in the NCAA tournament's first round.
As of Tuesday, start time for the two regional matches in College Park had not been announced.
