GRANVILLE, Ohio. (November 1, 2021) – The bracket and schedule for the 2021 North Coast Athletic Conference Field Hockey Tournament have been set, and the third-seeded Denison University Big Red will play at second-seeded Earlham College at 3 p.m. on Tuesday, November 2, in Richmond, Indiana.

After winning its first four conference games, Denison finished the regular season 9-7 overall and 6-2 in the NCAC. Earlham, meanwhile, was 15-3 overall and 6-2 in the conference, and earned the tiebreaker in the league standings over Denison by beating the Big Red 3-2 in a shootout after 80 minutes of scoreless action on October 21, in Granville, Ohio. It will be the first ever appearance in the NCAC Tournament for Earlham.

The Big Red are coming off a 2-0 victory over Oberlin College during Senior Day on Saturday while Earlham defeated Wittenberg University 3-1 on Saturday followed by a 2-1 loss at Ohio Wesleyan University on Sunday to close out its regular season.

The Big Red are also looking to defend their string of three straight NCAC Tournament championships after defeating Kenyon 2-1 in 2019, Wooster 2-0 in 2018, and Wittenberg 2-1 in 2017.

Junior Madeleine Hunt currently leads Denison University with seven goals, four assists and 18 points while senior Maya Tumiwa is second with five goals and 12 points, followed by sophomore Abigail Hano with four goals and 11 points and senior AC Veith with three goals and eight points.

Hunt's seven goals tie her for ninth in the NCAC while her four assists are tied for fifth.

In all, Denison has nine different players with two goals or more on the season while five have two or more assists.

In goal, senior Maren Kraak has started all 16 games and has recorded 55 saves, a .743 save percentage and a 1.26 goals-against average with five shutouts.

In all of the NCAC, Kraak ranks third in wins and in total minutes (906:00), and is fourth in goals-against average and sixth in saves.

In the other semifinal matchup, top-seeded Kenyon (13-4, 7-1) hosts fourth-seeded Ohio Wesleyan (8-5, 5-3). Denison defeated Kenyon 3-1 back on October 9 in Gambier, Ohio, but since then, the Ladies have rattled off six wins in a row, and are currently riding a stretch of three straight shoutouts over Ohio Wesleyan, Oberlin and the College of Wooster to close out the regular season.

The championship game is set for Saturday, Nov. 6, at the site of the highest remaining seed to emerge from the semifinal round.

2021 represented the sixth NCAC field hockey title for Kenyon. Denison leads all field hockey squads with 12 titles all-time. Wittenberg is second with 10 league titles, while Ohio Wesleyan is third with nine, Wooster is fourth with eight, followed by DePauw (4) and Oberlin (2).

Tourney Notes: The tournament winner receives the NCAC's automatic bid into the NCAA tournament ... Kenyon, looking for its fifth title in program history, is appearing in the tournament for the eighth-straight time and 13th time overall ... Earlham enters the NCAC postseason for the first time since joining the NCAC in 1989 ... Denison is making its 12th-straight appearance, 16th overall, and will look to claim the league lead by earning a fifth tournament title ... Ohio Wesleyan is making its second-consecutive appearance, fifth overall, and will look for its first NCAC title … Kenyon and Denison lead all programs with four tournament titles apiece followed by DePauw, Wooster and Wittenberg all with three, while Oberlin has claimed one NCAC tourney title ... Denison made its way through the tournament bracket to claim the NCAC tournament title in 2019 by knocking off No. 4 DePauw, 2-0, in the semifinals and No. 3 Kenyon, 2-1, in the championship.

Media Coverage: To follow the action this postseason, please check out our Live Events page for all of the video and live stats details: https://denisonbigred.com/coverage

Additional Links:
NCAC Tournament Page: https://northcoast.org/sports/fh/Tournament/2021
NCAC Ticket Policy: https://northcoast.org/Championships/ticket