ACC Field Hockey Championship begins Thursday

Courtesy UVA Media Relations

Virginia begins play at the 2021 Atlantic Coast Conference Field Hockey Championships on Thursday, Nov. 4 in a quarterfinal match against Boston College at 1 p.m. in Syracuse, N.Y,

Broadcast Info

• All games of the championship will be televised on the ACC Network and stream online on ACCNX through the ESPN app and is available through participating TV providers that carry ACCN
• Live stats be available through the conference’s website
• Links for both are posted on VirginiaSports.com

Noting the ‘Hoos

• Virginia has an overall record of 10-7. Four of those losses, including ones against conference opponents UNC and BC, came in overtime. The other three losses were by a one-goal margin
• The Cavaliers finished in a tie for fourth place in the ACC with Boston College, both having a 3-3 record. UVA is the No. 5 seed in the championship due to the 1-0 overtime loss to the Eagles in the regular season
• Virginia has a balanced attack with 14 different players having scored at least one goal this season. There are only three players who have appeared in 10 or more games that do not have a goal or an assist this season
• Senior back Amber Ezechiels leads the team in scoring. She has scored seven goals this year after scoring eight in the previous three seasons combined
• Ezechiels has a team-leading 18 points this season and 46 in her four-year career
• Ezechiels is fifth in the ACC in goals per game (.0.47) and fourth in points per game (1.20)
• Ezechiels has been named both the ACC Offensive Player of the Week (Oct. 5) and the ACC Defensive Player of the Week (Oct. 26) this season
• Ezechiels is the only Cavalier to have multiple game-winning goals this season (3) and is one of eight different Cavaliers to contribute the game-winning goal
• Senior midfielder Greer Gill ranks fifth in the ACC in assists per game (0.47). She has four assists and a goal in the last four games
• Freshman midfielder Noa Boterman is second on the team in goals scored with five
• Freshman back Jans Croon is one of three players to have started every game this season
• Grad student Makayla Gallen has started the last 64 consecutive games, a streak reaching back to her sophomore season. She has played in 96 games in a Virginia uniform
• Gallen, who began her career as a forward, was moved to playing back in the spring of last year, a position she stayed with to start this season before being moved to striker for the Maryland game (Oct. 7) where she has played since
• Senior Annie McDonough also has moved up to striker since the Maryland game. McDonough has scored two of her four goals since moving up from the midfield
• Freshman goalkeeper Tyler Kennedy has started the last 13 games for the Cavaliers and has appeared as the team’s lone goalie in nine of those contests. She has a 0.746 save percentage and a 1.31 goals-against average. She is averaging 3.31 saves per game. She is the first true freshman to start the majority of games in a season for the Cavaliers since Jenny Johnstone in 2011

Virginia in the ACC Championship

• Virginia is looking for its second ACC title. The team won its first championship in 2016. That year, UVA was the six seed in the tournament, becoming the lowest-ever seed to win the ACC Field Hockey Championship
• UVA has made the semifinals each of the last six years, including 2017 when the team was the tournament’s No. 1 seed
• Last season, the Cavaliers made the ACC semifinals after topping Wake Forest 2-1 in the quarterfinals. Laura Janssen and Adele Iacobucci were named to the All-Tournament Team
• Two years ago, UVA lost to host Boston College, 1-0, in overtime in the semifinals. Makayla Gallen and Greer Gill were named to the 2019 All-Tournament team