Nov. 11, 2009

GREENSBORO, N.C. – Five of the six Atlantic Coast Conference field hockey teams were selected to the NCAA Championship, announced by the NCAA Tuesday evening. Maryland (20-0, 5-0 ACC), which earned the league’s automatic berth by winning the 2009 ACC Field Hockey Championship with a 3-2 win in overtime over Virginia (Nov. 8), received the field’s top seed. Three of the five teams selected—Maryland, Wake Forest, and Virginia—will serve as host sites for the first and second rounds, played on Saturday and Sunday, November 14-15.

In addition, second-seeded Virginia (18-3, 3-2 ACC) and third-seeded North Carolina (16-2, 4-1 ACC) received top four seeds. The conference placed five of its six teams in the tournament for the fifth consecutive season and fields more teams in the 2009 16-team field of any conference. The Big Ten received three bids, the Colonial Athletic Association and the Big East had two apiece, while the Atlantic 10, Ivy League, Northern Pacific Field Hockey Conference, and Patriot League had one selection each.

Play will open on Saturday, November 14. Maryland will host Patriot League rival American at its Field Hockey & Lacrosse Complex in College Park, Md.; Boston College will take on Big East foe Syracuse in Princeton, N.J.; Virginia will host Richmond at Turf Field in Charlottesville, Va.; Wake Forest will play Indiana at Kentner Field in Winston-Salem, N.C., its home turf and site of the NCAA semifinal and final rounds; and North Carolina will play Ohio State, also at Kentner Field.

The second-round games will be played on Sunday, November 15, with the winners advancing to the national semifinals, hosted by Wake Forest, on November 20th and 22nd.

Last season featured an all-ACC championship game as Maryland defeated Wake Forest, 4-2, to claim its third national title in four seasons. ACC teams have claimed the field hockey national championship in each of the last seven seasons with at least one appearance in the title game in each season since 1999. The finals have been an all-ACC affair a total of eight times.