St. Joe’s field hockey looks to make every minute count in NCAA Tournament opener
First-year coach Sam Brown said the team stayed true to its goals to win a sixth consecutive Atlantic 10 championship. As the Hawks prepare to take on Vermont, they are also soaking in the experience.
Once postseason field hockey begins, each team is only promised 60 minutes. That’s the message St. Joseph’s head coach Sam Brown has been saying to his team all season.
That wasn’t necessarily the case in the Atlantic 10 tournament championship, which St. Joe’s won in a 2-1 shootout over Richmond. It took 75 minutes and eight rounds of a shootout to decide the Hawks’ sixth consecutive A-10 championship.
But as St. Joe’s starts a new slate in the NCAA Tournament, 60 minutes is all it’s promised.
“This team isn’t done, and if they want to play another 60 minutes, we have to show up and perform in the 60 minutes that we were promised,” Brown said. “It’s just game-by-game, step-by-step, survive-and-advance type hockey, and that’s what we love about [the] postseason.”
» READ MORE: St. Joseph’s field hockey is NCAA tournament-bound after capturing its sixth-straight A-10 title
The Hawks will travel to Evanston, Ill., for their first ever matchup against Vermont in the opening round on Wednesday (3 p.m., ESPN+) at Northwestern’s Lakeside Field.
Brown said it was “a little bit of transition” at the start of the season for the first-year coach to find his footing, but the players always knew they could get to this point, and it was one of the goals they set at the beginning of the season.
“The player group never wavered, and they never set any goal below winning the A-10s and qualifying for the NCAA,” Brown said. “We were obviously hopeful, but at the same time, I think the player group deserves a lot of credit for their ambition and staying true to that through the regular season and tournament.”
Despite being a first-time head coach, Brown has experience in the NCAA Tournament from his time as an associate head coach at Syracuse, where he worked under former Hawks head coach Lynn Farquhar. In his three seasons on staff for the Orange, Syracuse reached the NCAA Tournament each time, including a quarterfinal appearance in 2023 and 2025.
Many of the players on the roster have experience playing in the NCAA Tournament as well. This is St. Joe’s sixth consecutive year advancing to the tournament, with 2024 being the last time the Hawks made a national title game appearance.
Brown said being in this position before helps with understanding the postseason environment.
“It does feel different when you step onto a game at the national championship bracket,” Brown said. “So, for us as a coaching staff, it’s important that we embrace that and allow the athletes to soak up that environment because that’s what makes these experiences special.”
Saturday’s conference championship, he said, also helped. The Hawks played from behind to win. The only other time they came back from an early deficit was in a 4-3 win over Villanova on Oct. 18.
» READ MORE: New coach, tough schedule: St. Joe’s maintains its dominance
Instead of building momentum early in the game, Brown said the Hawks had to bring themselves back.
This lesson was crucial for St. Joe’s, which has a 5-8 record in its eight previous tournament appearances.
The Hawks chased in their eight NCAA losses, which includes four shutout losses. St. Joe’s won one game after trailing in 2022 with a 3-2 first-round win over Wake Forest. Its other four wins came from establishing early leads.
Still, Brown said the focus is on generating opportunities and converting on them.
Brown said there is an element of pressure that comes from competing at St. Joe’s. It’s a pressure Brown is happy to embrace.
“Personally, I love that sort of pressure,” Brown said. “We’re here to compete and to be involved at the business end of the season. So, I think it aligns with our team culture and our team ethos.”
Wednesday’s winner would play top-seeded Northwestern. The Wildcats and Hawks last met in the 2024 national championship, when St. Joe’s lost, 5-0.
Returning players Erika Culp, Milou Kluyt, and Alison Buffington played in that game, while Tristan Groff and Lily DeWan were also on the team during that run.
But right now, it’s about focusing on the next 60 minutes.
“We can’t dismiss what lies beyond, but we also have to earn the right to get there,” Brown said. “If there are athletes that are looking ahead and are hungry for that opportunity to play the No. 1 team in the country, which I think we all are, we only get that opportunity if we pay attention to Wednesday and get the details right and make sure that we progress from that first-round match.”
