Familiar foes to meet in Division I field hockey semifinals

BY CAROLYN THORNTON
Journal Sports Writer

The semifinals of the Rhode Island Interscholastic League Division I Field Hockey tournament will feature some familiar faces. Three of last year's Final Four teams are back again, including defending state champion North Kingstown which will take on Barrington in the second semifinal matchup, Wednesday night at 7 at Cranston Stadium.

Barrington - which overtook Bay View for the regular-season title with a 15-1-0 record - is the only team that did not advance out of the quarterfinal round last year, but the Eagles are no stranger to the postseason, having made it to the semifinals each of the three previous years, winning the state title in 2005 and '06. They have been led offensively by Hillary Anderson, the third-leading scorer in Division I with her 11 goals and 19 assists, and Laura Otterbach, another top-10 scorer with 12 goals and 1 assist.

North Kingstown, which has received consistent scoring contributions this season from Samantha Leonard, Megan Greene and Victoria Dolce, will be shooting for its sixth state title appearance in the last eight years.

Bay View, which last season advanced to the title game in its first year playing in Division I, will face East Greenwich in the first semifinal game at Cranston Stadium, Wednesday at 5 p.m. Led offensively by the league's top scorer in Sara Martineau (18 goals, 13 assists), the Bengals finished the regular season with a 14-2-0 mark. East Greenwich, which has the second-leading scorer in Division I with Lindsey Buckheit (16 goals, 13 assists) finished one game ahead of North Kingstown at 10-5-1.

Posted by Carolyn Thornton  at 10:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)