West Chester Set To Host 2018 PSAC Field Hockey Tournament

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WEST CHESTER, Pa. – The top-ranked, and defending conference tournament champion, West Chester University Golden Rams will host the 2018 Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) field hockey postseason tournament this weekend at Vonnie Gros Field.
 
West Chester (15-2) won the regular-season title and earned a first-round bye while also securing the right to host the tournament. East Stroudsburg (15-3) finished in second place and also received a bye into the semifinals Friday. Shippensburg (15-3) defeated Bloomsburg, 2-1 in overtime, in the quarterfinals on Tuesday while Millersville (14-5) defeated Kutztown, 2-0, in the other quarterfinal.
 
Tickets to the 2018 PSAC Field Hockey postseason tournament are $10 for adults and $5 for students, senior citizens and children. Students from PSAC member institutions with a valid school ID are admitted free of charge. Only PSAC passes will be honored at the gate. There are no comp tickets available.
 
West Chester will take on Millersville at 1 p.m. Friday afternoon in the first semifinal contest while East Stroudsburg will take on Shippensburg at 3:30 p.m. in the second semifinal. The PSAC Championship Game will be played Sunday at 1 p.m.
 
The Golden Rams entered last fall's conference tournament as the No. 4 seed and defeated Bloomsburg in the quarterfinals, before taking down No. 1 Shippensburg in the semifinals and No. 2 East Stroudsburg in the finals. It was West Chester's third PSAC title since re-classifying to Division II in 2011 and joining the PSAC. Millersville has won four conference titles with the last coming in 2016 while East Stroudsburg and Shippensburg have each won one. ESU last won it in 2015, and Shippensburg in 2005.
 
West Chester is led by Jr., F Katie Thompson (Washington, N.J./Warren Hills), who ranks third in the conference in points with 42. Shippensburg's Jazmin Petrantonio and Kutztown's Kyra Wozniak each have 45 points. Sr., F Kaitlin Hatch (Sewell,N.J./Washington Twp.) has 12 goals and 27 points on the year. She is just seven points away from 100 in her illustrious career.
 
Defensively, Sr., D Taylor Bracale (Hummelstown, Pa./Lower Dauphin) is a steady force along the back line in front of senior goalkeeper Marissa Elizardo (North Wales, Pa./North Penn).
 
There are no automatic qualifiers to the NCAA Tournament. Therefore, a conference championship does not guarantee a team a spot in the NCAAs. However, should West Chester win the tournament again this weekend, it would most likely set them up for a bye into the national semifinals. Three teams from the South Region and three teams from the North Region qualify for the NCAA Tournament. However, once those six teams are determined, the NCAA re-seeds the six regardless of regional affiliation. The top two seeds go directly to the national semifinals and the NCAA DII Festival in Pittsburgh, Pa.