The NCAA field hockey tournament begins with a battle for ‘queen of Philly’

The NCAA field hockey tournament begins Wednesday, and it will start with two teams vying for Big 5 bragging rights.

After winning their respective conference tournaments, St. Joseph’s and Drexel will meet for the second time this season in the opening round at 2 p.m. (ESPN+) in Chapel Hill, N.C.

A year removed from their run to the NCAA title game, the Hawks (11-9, 4-2 Atlantic 10) repeated as A-10 tournament champions for the fifth time, despite suffering their most regular-season losses since 2015, with a 2-0 win over Richmond.

The Dragons (13-7, 3-2 Coastal Athletic Association) claimed the program’s second CAA title — and first since 2012 — with a 3-2 win over top-seeded Monmouth. This will mark Drexel’s third trip to the NCAA Tournament.

Beyond bragging rights, the teams are vying for the opportunity to face top overall seed North Carolina (19-1, 7-1 Atlantic Coast Conference). Notably, St. Joe’s beat the top-seeded Tar Heels, 2-1, to advance to the national championship game last season.

“We’re basically competing over who’s the queen of Philly,” Milou Kluyt, a St. Joe’s junior back, said. “That’s just so cool.”

While there’s no direct Big 5 coalition for field hockey, Philly’s six Division I schools all sponsor the sport and play one another regularly. Drexel played all five city opponents this season, while St. Joe’s played Penn, La Salle, Drexel, and Villanova in the regular season and had a preseason exhibition against Temple.

Thanks to the city rivalry, Drexel and St. Joe’s are very familiar with each other. Drexel beat St. Joe’s, 3-2, in a double-overtime shootout on Oct. 12 at Ellen Ryan Field, with Halle Geiger making the decisive save for the Dragons in the sixth round of the shootout.

“You can use it as fuel and really have the motivation to go out there and beat them,” Kluyt said. “I’m really motivated. I can’t wait to play them. I’m pretty sure that the rest of the team feels the same way.”

The rivalry crosses family lines, too. Nicole Enslin, a junior back from Perth, Australia, who transferred to Drexel from Liberty this offseason, is the older sister of Alex Enslin, a freshman back at St. Joe’s.

Both coaches said familiarity with an opponent in a tournament setting makes it easier to game plan.

“You can have the fear of what you know or the fear of the unknown going into a championship like this,” Drexel coach Denise Zelenak said. “I’d rather know my opponent vs. something that’s brand new, to be able to make those adjustments.”

For Hannah Prince’s Hawks, who were on the losing end of the game in October, it’s an opportunity for revenge.

“Last weekend for A-10s, we were on a bit of a revenge tour,” Prince said. “This week allows us to continue that trend. … I feel that we have this great opportunity to kind of rewrite the story of our battle with our Philly neighbors.”

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Prince’s team became the first in St. Joe’s history to play for a national championship in any sport when it reached the title game of last season’s tournament. The Hawks lost, 5-0, to No. 2 Northwestern but still secured the program’s first 20-win season.

However, St. Joe’s returned just eight players this season. Prince brought in 18 newcomers, including nine freshmen, to retool her roster. The Hawks were not as dominant as they were last season but still qualified for the A-10 tournament as a top-four team in the conference.

Kluyt, one of the eight returners and a team captain, led the Hawks to their eighth conference title in nine seasons. Kluyt was named A-10 Defensive Player of the Year for her efforts anchoring the Hawks defense in the regular season, and she added the A-10 tournament’s Most Outstanding Player award after netting three goals in two tournament games.

“It gives me confidence to just trust in my own ability, to execute what I’ve been practicing for all these years,” Kluyt said.

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And while they might not be the force that entered the NCAA Tournament as the No. 4 seed last year, this year’s Hawks are reaching their peak at the right time. Prince believes her players have learned from each of the team’s losses this season and that regular-season struggles have fueled the team’s postseason success.

“The ups and downs really helped us to come together when it mattered the most,” Prince said. “It taught us a lot more lessons along the way.”

Back in the NCAA Tournament after a 13-year drought, Zelenak is excited to take her team deeper into the postseason. The Dragons won the CAA tournament behind the efforts of two-time CAA Player of the Year Valentine Van Hellemont. The junior midfielder was named the tournament’s MVP after recording a goal and four assists in two games.

“We’re excited for the next one and the opportunity to keep going,” Zelenak said. “This is not something that happens every year. We have a lot of support at Drexel, because we know how special it is, and we’re going to definitely celebrate every second as we’re going through it.”

Zelenak, who took over as head coach for the Dragons in 1995, was at the helm for Drexel’s only NCAA Tournament win, a 3-2 first-round upset of No. 5 Connecticut in 2009. The Dragons lost their second-round game to top seed and eventual runner-up Maryland, 5-0. In 2012, the Dragons lost a first-round game to No. 2 Princeton, 5-0.

The tournament has expanded from 16 teams to 18 since the Dragons’ last trip, allowing for the two Philly schools to meet in one of two opening-round games, which are play-ins to face the top two seeds.

Zelenak says the key for her team is to block out the outside noise and excitement that comes with the tournament setting. She wants her team to relax.

“When no one’s thinking, that’s when the best things are happening,” Zelenak said. “I think being able to turn off all the outside noise [is key], which is going to be a big, big challenge because they’ve never been in this situation. … I think they’re going to play confidently, and I know they’re going to play first whistle to last.”