LEXINGTON, Va. - The No. 13 Washington and Lee University field hockey team will host Ohio Wesleyan University on Wednesday, November 9 in the first round of the 2022 NCAA DIII Field Hockey Tournament. 

The Generals (16-2) own the Old Dominion Athletic Conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Field Hockey Tournament after winning the conference championship, 1-0, in OT over the University of Lynchburg on Saturday. 

W&L is the league's only representative in the 26-team field and is making its fourth appearance in the NCAA Tournament. All-time, W&L owns a 2-3 record in the post-season tournament including a 1-1 showing in the most-recent appearance in 2021. 

The Blue and White will host the Battling Bishops of Ohio Wesleyan (16-2) at 2:30 p.m. on Wednesday and it will be the first-ever matchup between the two programs.

OWU earned the post-season berth by winning the North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) championship contest over DePauw University on Saturday. The Battling Bishops defeated DePauw, 1-0, in double-overtime.

The Generals have faced five nationally-ranked teams, while the Battling Bishops have not played any top-25 teams this year. In last year's NCAA tournament, OWU knocked off SUNY Courtland, 2-1 (2OT), in the first round of play before falling to Rowan 2-1 in the second round. Rowan defeated the Generals in the next contest, a 3-0 loss in the NCAA Regional Finals.

BY THE NUMBERS

Category	W&L	OWU
Goals	83	59
Goals Per Game	4.61	3.28
Shots	394	418
Shots Per Game	21.9	23.2
Shots on Goal	241	240
Shots on Goal Percentage	0.612	0.574
Assists	49	34
Saves	43	16
Penalty Corners	107	188
Goals Against	18	2
Goals Against Per Game	1.00	0.11
Shots Against	135	46
Shots Against Per Game	7.5	2.6
Shots Against on Goal	64	17
Shots Against on Goal Per Game	6	0.94
Penalty Corners Against	95	45

 

PLAYERS TO WATCH: W&L

Seniors Freddie Tobeason (New York, N.Y. / Groton), Peyton Tysinger (Norfolk, Va. / Norfolk Academy) and Alexis Parks (Arlington, Va. / Washington-Lee), along with first-year Betty Boatwright (District of Colombia/ Georgetown Visitation) have all tallied double-digit goals for the Blue and White, but the offensive game plan starts in the midfield transition with NFHCA 2021 All-Americans, Tess Muneses (Howard County, Md. / Glenwood) and Kailey Fitzgerald (Chevy Chase, Md. / Georgetown Visitation)

Tysinger scored the game-winning goal in the ODAC Championship after a Fitzgerald shot was blocked on the initial attempt. Tobeason redirected the rebounded ball toward the back post for Tysinger's tap-in. Tobeason's assist was her 12th of the season, a new program record, to go along with her 14 goals for 40 points. Tysinger matched that number with the game-winning goal on Saturday to give her 34 points. 

On the back line, Jenny Lerner (Mount Pleasant, S.C. / Georgetown) and Jordan Hoover (Harvard, Mass. / Bromfield) hold down the fort for junior goalie Abby Long (Kansas City, Mo. / Pembroke Hill). The starting keeper has a 0.712 save percentage along with three complete shutouts. She has faced 77 shots and made 37 stops in cage for the Blue and White.

PLAYERS TO WATCH: OWU

Allie Crawford and Emily Streeter are the Bishops' offensive engine, as the two have scored a combined 26 goals, while no other player has more than six scores. Olivia Danley has notched a team-high seven assists and five goals for 17 points.

Senior midfielder Veronica Hardman was responsible for the game-winner to lift second-seeded Ohio Wesleyan over DePauw on Saturday. She was also named the Tournament's Most Valuable Player. Sophomore defender Gabi Dahllof, Crawford, senior defender Cayla Homsher and forward Streeter joined Hardman on the NCAC All-Tournament team. 

Defensively, Ohio Wesleyan has posted 16 shutouts, and starting goalkeeper Meg McCarthy has only allowed one goal all season on just 45 shots faced with 14 saves.

ADVANCING

The winner of the first round contest will travel to the Salisbury University pod for the second round and quarterfinals matchup. 

The host Sea Gulls (17-0) received a bye through the first round. The other two teams in that eventual four-team pod will come from the winners of first round contests featuring DeSales University (15-4) at York College (Pa.) (15-5) and Johnson & Wales University (Providence)(19-1) at Williams College (12-5). DSU won the MAC Freedom Conference title, while Williams and York earned at-large selections out of the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) and MAC Commonwealth Conference, respectively.