Bowdoin Women's Soccer Ready For NESCAC Semifinals Saturday

BRUNSWICK, Maine - The Bowdoin College women's soccer team will look to win its first NESCAC Tournament this weekend as they travel to Williams College for the conference championship.

Saturday's schedule gets underway at 11 a.m. when the host Ephs take on sixth-seeded Middlebury. Second-seeded Bowdoin and fourth-seeded Trinity face off at 1:30 p.m. Advancing teams will battle for the NESCAC championship on Sunday at noon with an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament up for grabs.

• Video interview with senior Rachel Brooke
• Complete NESCAC Championship Information

Bowdoin is making back-to-back semifinal appearances for the first time since 2007-08 after shutting out seventh-seeded Tufts, 3-0. Senior Maggie Godley (North Kingstown, R.I.) set the tone early when she scored in the eighth minute, while senior Jamie Hofstetter (Chester, N.J.) assisted two goals and scored another to extend the Polar Bears' current winning streak to six games. Hofstetter and first-year Julia Patterson (Hingham, Mass.) have netted a team-best seven goals with Hofstetter also dishing out five assists. Senior Bridget McCarthy (Hopkinton, Mass.) is Bowdoin's primary goalkeeper, posting a 0.96 goals against average and an .816 save percentage with five shutouts. The Polar Bears are making their third semifinal appearance in the last four seasons and 11th overall, but are still looking for their first conference title after losing their two previous championship appearances versus Williams in 2007 and 2012.

Trinity advanced to its second-ever NESCAC semifinal by defeating fifth-seeded Bates, 2-1, last Saturday. After the Bobcats opened up a 1-0 lead, first-year Taylor Kirchgessner (Bethesda, Md.) assisted the Bantams' first goal and scored the eventual game-winner in the 36th minute. Kirchgessner and junior Laura Nee (Duxbury, Mass.) have tallied five goals each, but seven different players have scored game-winning goals for Trinity. In goal, the Bantams have relied on Monica DiFiori (Manhattan Beach, Calif.), who has played all but 11 minutes this season. The senior possesses an .839 save percentage, a 1.12 goals against average and eight shutouts. The Bantams aim to reach their first NESCAC championship game.

Bowdoin is 2-0-0 against the Bantams in the postseason, with the Polar Bears winning the most recent meeting in the 2007 quarterfinals, 2-0. Trinity's Caroline McKenna (Sandwich, Mass.) scored in the 81st minute of the regular season meeting between the squads to give the Bantams a 1-0 win over Bowdoin on October 10.

All three games will be webcasted by the Northeast Sports Network (NSN) at nescac.nsnsports.net.