NCAC Tournament Central | Bracket
This Week's Outlook: The College of Wooster women's lacrosse team earned the No. 2 seed in the North Coast Athletic Conference Tournament and will play in the championship game following the team's semifinal win over DePauw Uniiversity, 19-12, on Wednesday. The Scots earned a spot in the championship game where they will take on No. 1 seed Denison University, who handled Kenyon College in their semifinal match, 21-11. The championship game will take place 1 p.m. Saturday at Denison.
Ticket Information: Ticket prices for the NCAC Tournament are set by the conference office. For Wednesday's game, ticket prices are $7 for adults, $3 for children (18 & under), and free for students with a valid student ID card from a NCAC institution. NCAC students are admitted free of charge but must have a valid student ID card from a NCAC institution.
Media Coverage: Fans can follow along via the live stats and video links provided by the host school and read the recap following Wooster games at Woosterathletics.com.
Tournament History: Wooster returned to the NCAC Tournament for the first time since 2022 where they entered as the fourth seed and fell to the top seed in Kenyon in the semifinals. This is the 28th appearance for the Scots in tournament, who have amassed a 25-21 record following the semifinal win. They've claimed six championships, the last coming in 2010. As the two seed, the program has a 8-5 record. They are 14-10 in semifinal matches and 6-8 in championship games. Wednesday was the first time Wooster and DePauw met in the tournament. Wooster is 5-11 in tournament play versus the Big Red.
Season Meeting: Playing for the regular season title on April 22, Denison gave Wooster its lone loss amongst Division III teams in a 15-10 outcome. It also broke an 11-game winning streak that started March 16. The Scots jumped out to a 3-0 lead, and the game was tied at 9-9 before Denison pulled away. Kaitlyn McBride scored five goals to lead the Scots. The Big Red lead the all-time series 64-15-2.
Scouting the Scots: Entering tournament play, Wooster leads the conference at 15.82 goals per game and is led by an upper-class offensive attack with five players who have scored 30 or more goals this season. Kenzie Morris leads with 41 scores with Brynne Snaguski (39), Kaitlyn McBride (37), Bella Woodbury (31), Lizzie Hardy (31) and Sophia Mellis (28) right behind. Hardy leads the team with 47 ground balls and 101 draw controls. Sophomore Audrey Richardson started all 17 regular season games at goalie and has racked up 87 saves across a 15-2 record.
Scouting The Big Red: 20th-ranked Denison is 13-4 overall and undefeated in NCAC play at 6-0. In Wednesday's semifinal against Kenyon, the Big Red trailed 5-4 early in the second quarter but never trailed once the score hit 7-7 and took a 10-8 halftime lead. Anna DeVuono scored eight goals. She has 67 goals on the year to lead the conference. Goalie Julianne Henigan averages 9.51 goals against per game, only behind Richardson's 8.70 mark, but Henigan is first in save percentage at .476.
NPI Matters: New to this season is the NCAA Power Index (NPI), which will be used when it comes time to select teams for the NCAA DIII Championships. The NPI is a system that houses the division's statistical data and objectively applies the selection criteria to the data based on the sport committee's established weighted criteria. NPI is a combination of the following: winning percentage; strength of schedule; home-away multiplier; quality win bonus; and overtime results (when relevant). Wooster has been as high as ninth in the rankings this season and is sitting 18th as of April 27 thanks to their 15-1 win/loss record versus DIII opponents. If things go right this week for Wooster, they could see themselves in the tournament for the seventh time and first time since 2010.
