Eagles Earn At-Large Bid to NCAA Tournament

CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. – The 11th-ranked Boston College field hockey team earned an at-large bid to the 2016 NCAA Tournament on Sunday night and will face fourth-ranked Connecticut this weekend in the first round in Syracuse, N.Y. | 2016 NCAA Tournament Bracket

The Eagles and Huskies were drawn into defending national champion, third-seeded and second-ranked Syracuse's four-team pod that also includes 16th-ranked Harvard. This weekend's games will be played at Syracuse's J.S. Coyne Stadium.

Dates and times for this weekend's games will be announced later tonight or Monday.

"We're excited to extend the season into the NCAA Tournament," head coach Kelly Doton said. "We're looking forward to getting to Syracuse and playing a really tough opponent in UConn. UConn and BC have battled over the years.

"All 18 teams deserved to have their names called tonight. Winning a national championship is no easy feat, so we're going to have to go through a very tough UConn team. They won two national championship a couple of years ago and we're looking forward to facing the Huskies again," Doton said.

Boston College and UConn met at BC's Newton Complex on Oct. 25, with the Huskies claiming the 4-3 win on a penalty stroke in overtime. BC battled back from a two-goal deficit with less than four minutes to play to force the extra session.

This is Boston College's fourth-straight selection to the NCAA Tournament, all coming as at-large bids. Overall, this will be BC's 11th NCAA Tournament in program history: 1994, 1997, 1998, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2009, 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016.

The Eagles' six-player senior class – captain Alexa Brazauskas, Leah Frome, Audra Hampsch, Emily McCoy, Eryn McCoy and Brittany Sheenan – is the first class in program history to advance to the NCAA Championship in each of its four years at The Heights.

Boston College enters the NCAA Tournament with a 10-9 record, but posted a number of program-bests this year:

The Eagles' 3-3 mark in ACC regular-season action matched the team's best-ever finish in the conference
Its No. 3 seed at the ACC Championship was its best-ever seeding.
Four players – goalkeeper Audra Hampsch, midfielder Ymke Rose Gote, back Frederique Haverhals and midfielder Erin McCoy – all earned All-ACC honors, the program's highest total in its ACC history.

The Eagles have played the nation's second-toughest schedule this season, with its opponents' winning percentage at .668 on the year – trailing only Virginia's .674 mark. BC's Ratings Percentage Index (PRI) was No. 10 entering last week's ACC Championship, its highest mark of the season.

This season, Boston College faced 10 of the other 17 teams in this year's NCAA bracket: Connecticut, Duke, Harvard, Louisville, Maryland, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Stanford, Syracuse and Virginia (twice). BC went 4-7 in those games.

Six of the seven ACC teams were shown in the 18-team bracket. ACC regular-season champion Duke is the No. 1 overall seed, while Syracuse is the No. 3 seed. ACC Championship winner Virginia, North Carolina and Louisville were also selected.

Complete information about this weekend's NCAA Tournament games will be available on bceagles.com as it becomes available.

You can follow the team all season via its social channels: Twitter (@bcfieldhockey), Instagram (@bcfieldhockey) and Facebook (/BCFieldHockey).

Eagles Earn At-Large Bid to NCAA Tournament

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Players Mentioned

Alexa Brazauskas

Leah Frome

Ymke Rose Gote

Audra Hampsch

Frederique Haverhals

Emily McCoy

Eryn McCoy

Brittany Sheenan

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