For each of the first three years following the Div. III women's soccer tournament's expansion to 60 teams, the NESCAC earned just two bids, one automatic bid for the conference's champion and one at-large.
But the recent performances of the NESCAC's elite have certainly raised the league's profile. In the past three Div. III tournaments, conference representatives have combined to win 12 games. Every NESCAC team has advanced to at least the second round, and both of last season's selections - Amherst and Middlebury - made the Sweet Sixteen.
This Sunday, the conference was rewarded.
The selection committee handed the NESCAC two at-large bids to the 2007 NCAA Tournament, as Tufts and Bowdoin picked up two of the 18 Pool C picks. Their selections, combined with Williams' automatic qualification for winning the NESCAC Tournament, gave the conference an unprecedented three representatives in the Div. III tournament.
"It's great that the NCAA committee is realizing how strong both the NESCAC and New England soccer are," Bowdoin senior tri-captain Ann Zeigler said. "Soccer is so popular in the United States as a whole that it's hard to evenly distribute the bids to teams around the country. But I was really pleased to see that three NESCAC teams made it because New England is such a strong region."
Williams punched its ticket to the tournament on Sunday, when it defeated Bowdoin 4-0 and captured its first NESCAC title since 2004. The victory improved the Ephs' record to 16-0-0 and earned the squad a first-round bye in the NCAA Tournament. Saturday, the team will host the winner of a first-round matchup between Husson and Springfield.
Despite seven regular-season losses and a 5-5-1 out-of-conference record, Husson made the tournament after winning the North Atlantic Conference, topping the University of Maine-Farmington in Sunday's title game. Springfield, meanwhile, was upset in the first round of the NEWMAC Tournament but still earned an at-large bid after winning 15 regular-season games.
Regardless of its opponent, Williams looks forward to the challenge of playing on such a big stage.
"I don't think it matters who we play," Ephs junior forward Gabrielle Woodson said. "Talking with the girls and looking at the bracket, we're just excited to play, and the fact that we have home-field advantage and get to play here this weekend is always nice."
Williams established itself as the top team in New England this season, combining a blistering offense and a stingy defense to finish the regular season without a loss. The team's leading offensive player, Woodson has accounted for 14 of the Ephs' NESCAC-best 48 goals, while also chipping in seven assists. On the defensive end, Williams has allowed only four goals this season, good for the third-best goals-against average in Div. III.
Though opponents will have their sights set on ending the Ephs' bid for a perfect season, Williams believes it can manage the pressure of having the target on its back.
"It's an all-out desire to win and an all-out desire to compete that will help us through the rest of the tournament," Woodson said. "I don't think it's being afraid to mess up. I don't think anyone necessarily feels the pressure, even though it seems like we have everything to lose going into every game because we are currently undefeated."
While Williams enters the NCAA Tournament as a Final Four favorite, Bowdoin is more of an underdog. The squad is making its first appearance in the tournament in seven years, earning an at-large bid after reaching its first-ever NESCAC final. The team's success has come under first-year head coach Maren Rojas, who has led the Polar Bears to a 12-win season after taking over for 20-year veteran John Cullen.
"I really attribute a lot of the success of the team to what John Cullen had done previously," Rojas said. "Seasons are built upon seasons, and certainly a lot of our success this season has been due to his hard work in years past."
Bowdoin's first-round opponent will be nationally-ranked No. 24 Ithaca, which is making an unprecedented 18th trip to the NCAA Tournament. The champion of the Empire 8 conference, Ithaca last played a NESCAC team in 1998, when it topped Tufts in the quarterfinals of the Div. III tournament.
"I actually know absolutely nothing about them, which I think is good because you don't want to take an opponent too lightly," Zeigler said. "It's nice to play a team way out of the conference, a team we've never faced before. We're taking them very seriously, but we're also feeling good about how we're playing and how we came out of the [NESCAC] tournament."
While the Polar Bears are enjoying their newfound success, the team refuses to be complacent and isn't content just making the Div. III tournament.
"You don't know when you get an opportunity to get to NCAAs," Rojas said. "It's not something that's just a given. I feel it's always special, and you should always take it that way, and you should always go for it as much as you possibly can, because you don't know when the next chance will be when you get there."
