Northampton, Frontier earn high seeds in sectional field hockey tournament
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The postseason is commonly called a second season throughout the sports landscape.
With the time and events that will have occurred between the regular season finales and the first game of the playoffs, this year's Western Massachusetts field hockey tournaments will feel as much like a new season as any other.
The top-seeded local teams in each field - Northampton in Division 1, Frontier Regional in Division 2 - will use the time off to go in different directions.
For the Blue Devils, it's about a chance to turn things around after a tough final 10 days of the regular season.
Northampton posted a 1-3 record in its final four games after starting the year 13-0-1.
"We've really been able to identify how teams have stopped us the last week and a half of the season," said Blue Devils coach Kathleen Ralls, whose squad is in the postseason for the first time since 2004. "That's what we are working on in practice."
Despite the late struggles, Northampton (14-3-1) earned the No. 2 seed behind perennial favorite Longmeadow (15-1-2).
The Blue Devils played their regular season finale on Oct. 26, a 2-0 loss to South Hadley.
Northampton, which returns to school today, is spending this week practicing at Smith College to prepare for the field turf at Mount Holyoke College, the site of the semifinals.
"We're focusing on the basic skills that you can utilize on the turf," Ralls said. "We have a lot of new drills."
The Blue Devils await the winner of a quarterfinal game between No. 3 Agawam (10-4-3) and No. 6 West Springfield (10-5-3) for a semifinal matchup at MHC on Tuesday, at either 5 or 7 p.m.
"I've been coaching for six years in Northampton," said Ralls, who was the junior varsity coach for two years before taking over the varsity for the past four. "This is what I've been waiting for."
Frontier, meanwhile, earned the No. 1 seed in Division 2 after posting a 16-0-2 record, the first undefeated regular season under coach Missy Mahar.
"We definitely feel like we were peaking" at the end of the regular season, Mahar said. "We had to move some people around and everyone had become comfortable with who was next to them. We had ironed some things out and played very well."
Frontier played its regular season finale, a 5-0 win over Greenfield, on Oct. 28. It will play the winner of a quarterfinal matchup between No. 4 Pioneer Regional (13-5) and No. 5 South Hadley (8-7-2) in the semifinals at MHC on Monday at either 5 or 7 p.m.
The Mount Holyoke field has not been kind to the Red Hawks, who have lost a pair of heartbreakers in the semifinals there the last two seasons.
"It hasn't been our good luck charm the last couple of years, but we can't change the past," Mahar said. "The team knows what it wants to accomplish this year, so they know what they have to do come Monday night."
Mahar won back-to-back WMass titles in 2004 and 2005, but Frontier then missed the playoffs for each of the next three seasons before bouncing back with 43 wins in its last three years combined.
The 2009 Red Hawks (14-4-2) lost to South Hadley in double overtime, while last year's squad (13-4-2) fell to rival Smith 1-0 when a bounce off the post led to the game's lone goal.
"They are a really, really great bunch of girls," said Mahar, who won her 100th career game early this year. "They are hardworking. coachable. They make being with them every day and coaching them such a good time."
Smith Academy, which placed second behind Frontier in the North, earned the No. 2 seed in coach Dena Polverari's first season on the sidelines.
The Falcons (10-6-2) will play a rematch of last year's title game against defending champion No. 3 Mohawk Trail (8-6-4) in the semifinals at MHC on Monday at either 5 or 7 p.m.
The Tigers, meanwhile, earned the No. 5 seed and are a scary matchup considering their recent playoff success and a few impressive wins.
South Hadley, which moved up to Division 1 last year because of boys on the team, won the WMass title and has a roster full of players with that experience.
Jim Pignatiello can be reached at jpignatiello@gazettenet.com.
