NECC championship preview

BOSTON, Mass. - The Wheelock field hockey team will battle for their first conference championship tomorrow afternoon when the team travels to Leicester, Mass. to take on Becker College at 1:00 pm. It's been ten years since a field hockey team competed for a championship; in 1999 the Wildcats were runners up when members of the North Atlantic Conference.

This is the field hockey team's second trip to the playoffs under second year head coach Kyoungho Koh. Last season, the Wildcats lost in the semi-finals to eventual champions Becker College.

"To quote a movie that the team watched during pre-season, ‘A life lived in fear is a life half-lived.' It is everything from trusting yourself and your teammates regardless of past experiences and treating each moment as a new and present possibility, said Koh. "If on this high of winning our first playoff game in conference history, we can remember this, then we will be good to go on Saturday."

The Hawks won both regular season meetings between the two teams. In the first match-up, Becker was led by Freshman Brooke Cote, who scored two goals before the Wildcats lit up the scoreboard. In the second game, the Hawks kept the Wildcats off the scoreboard entirely with a 2-0 win. Becker was the only conference team to defeat Wheelock this season.

For Coach Koh, regardless of the outcome of tomorrow's game, the team has already experienced a victory.

"Each team in our conference I feel has the task of developing our conference and providing each other the next challenges we need to grow," said Koh. "Regardless of the outcome tomorrow, I know the team has done this. Tomorrow will be simply another layer to get a chance for a breakthrough on individual but more on a team level. After all, team sports are about both counting on yourself and your teammates in tandem."

A fan bus will depart from 37 Pilgrim Road at 11:30 am and return immediately following the game.