By Harry Minium
I thought that when Old Dominion's field hockey team defeated nationally ranked Liberty, 3-1, in the semifinals of the Big East Conference tournament last week that the Monarchs would make the NCAA tournament.
ODU played one of the toughest schedules of any team outside of the ACC, including 10 of their 17 games against nationally ranked opponents. The Monarchs won at Penn State and beat Liberty twice and lost at No. 1 North Carolina, 1-0, just before the Big East tournament.
But they were the last team left out when the 18-team NCAA tournament field was announced on Sunday.
ODU was en route to Norfolk from the Big East tournament at Quinnipiac University in Connecticut, where the Monarchs fell to UConn, 2-0. They got the word changing flights in Baltimore, and it hit them like a ton of bricks.
ODU was squarely on the bubble and when the Monarchs got the news, "it felt like we lost twice in one day," coach Andrew Griffiths said.
ODU finished No. 15 in the field hockey RPI, and the first 14 teams all made the tournament. The RPI is just one measure the NCAA tournament committee uses to judge teams and it all came down to three teams and two bids.
ODU was pegged against Michigan and Northwestern for the final two berths and lost out to the two Big Ten teams.
Is there an inherent big-school bias in field hockey circles as well as they are in college basketball? Of course there is. It exists at all levels of the NCAA.
Given that Michigan lost its last two games, did not win a game in the Big Ten tournament, and that ODU won four of its last five games, including two over nationally ranked teams, it would seem the Monarchs should have caught a break.
The news was, of course, devastating to the ODU players, who thought the win over Liberty was enough to get in.
Seniors Riley Taylor and Julia Demeester got on Twitter to pay homage to their teammates.
"I've never loved a team more than I've loved this one," wrote Demeester.
"Love this team so much . . . can't believe it's over but this season's memories will always hold a special place in my heart."
"The only thing that diminishes the pain is just our team and where it is now, " Griffiths said."We got to a great place with our team in terms of how we played, how we approached things and how we performed together.
"We were really playing well toward the end of the season. I don't think a lot of teams would have looked forward to playing us in the NCAA tournament."
Three teams with RPI rankings lower than ODU – No. 22 Fairfield, No. 28 American and No. 40 Miami of Ohio made the field by winning their conference tournaments and earning automatic bids.
The Big East had three teams in the RPI Top 20, but only conference champion UConn advanced. Ten of the 18 tournament teams are from the ACC and Big Ten.
Yes, the ACC is field hockey's dominant league. North Carolina won last year's national championship and is unbeaten this season. But remember ODU's only loss to in its last four regular-season games?
"If we'd won that game, we would have made it," Griffiths said.
Although we can't say who they are until they sign, Griffiths has commitments from a class of players he believes is the strongest he's ever had.
"You never know how things are going to work out, but I think" it's the best class, he said.
He losses a very good senior class.
"We have some very strong players, strong talent who I feel confident that once we can get them to mesh together, will fill those holes," he said. "And we have very good players who are returning.
"I feel excited about the foundation we have now."
"We are all disappointed that the journey couldn't continue," he added. "Our players were playing so well. We were having so much fun.
"We only gave up eight goals in our last eight games. In that span, we played the No. 1, No. 2 and No. 4 teams in the nation and (nationally ranked) Liberty twice.
"With one more win, it probably would have been enough to put us in. It just really sucks for all of our girls who worked so hard and played so well."
Indeed it does.
Contact Minium: hminium@odu.edu