South Atlantic Week in Review- Week 11

By D3soccer.com Contributor

The NCAA Championship Tournament field has been set. Five out of the eight teams ranked in the third South Atlantic Regional rankings made it into the tournament. Let’s take a look at where our top teams in the region will be playing...and who will be staying at home.

TCNJ (16-1-1 / 8-0-1) D3Soccer.com No. 4 / SA Region #1

#1 seed TCNJ hosted #4 seed Rowan (10-8-1 / 4-4-1) Tuesday night in a New Jersey Athletic Conference semifinal, scoring an early goal and a late goal en route to a 2-0 win. The Lions controlled play, putting up 16 shots to just five for the Profs (9-1 SOG), and looked to be ready to pull away after Amelia Curtis’ goal in the first five minutes, but Rowan kept the match close. While never able to net the equalizer, they kept the Lions from extending their lead until the 88th minute when Julianna Bertolino scored for the home team.

The Lions hosted #2 seed Montclair State (13-6-2 / 7-1-1) Friday night and won their third straight NJAC Championship, beating the Red Hawks by a score of 3-2 in double overtime. The Lions took a 2-0 lead into halftime after Julianna Bertolino scored in the 13th minute and Kelly Carolan converted a penalty kick in the 21st minute. But, the Red Hawks came storming back, getting their own penalty kick conversion in the 65th minute and a breakaway goal in the 78th to even the score and send the match into overtime. The Lions were the only team that managed any shots in the overtime periods, but the gritty defensive play by both teams made it appear that the game was headed to penalty kicks to decide the NJAC Champion and automatic qualifier to the NCAA Tournament. However, in the 109th minute, a hard foul in the box by a Red Hawk defender set up Amelia Curtis’ penalty conversion and sent the Lions off to celebrate their 19th New Jersey Athletic Conference Women’s Soccer Championship.

The Lions, recipients of the NJAC automatic berth, will now host a pod for the first weekend, taking on CUNYAC Champion John Jay (12-6-1 / 5-0-0) while at-large bid Tufts (12-3-2 / 7-2-1) will take on SUNYAC champ Cortland State (12-5-2 / 7-0-2) in the other matchup.

Christopher Newport (15-2-3 / 8-1-1) D3Soccer.com No. 8 / SA Region #2

#2 seed Christophe...

The weekly South Atlantic Week in Review will survey the Division III women's soccer landscape throughout the NCAA South Atlantic Region consisting of twelve  states.  The primary ones are Virginia (ODAC), New Jersey (NJAC), North Carolina (USAC) and Georgia (Various).  The remaining states are home to three or fewer South-Atlantic schools with conference ties elsewhere: Arkansas, Alabama, D.C., Kentucky, Maryland, Mississippi, Pennsylvania and Tennessee.  We will look at some of the key match-ups, results, and standout performances, identifying who is trending up and who is trending down each week.