<\/p>\n
BATES vs AMHERST | 11 AM ET |<\/strong> STATS<\/strong><\/a> | <\/strong>WATCH<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n No. 4 Bates hosts a rare all-NESCAC regional this weekend as No. 25 Amherst, No. 18 Williams, and No. 6 Tufts arrive in Lewiston for the Sweet 16 and Elite 8. Bates (15\u20133), fresh off its first-ever NESCAC title and three straight shutouts, opens against Amherst (9\u20138) on Saturday at 11 a.m. Tufts (15\u20133) and Williams (9\u20138) meet at 2 p.m., with winners advancing to Sunday\u2019s quarterfinal for a trip to the Final Four.<\/p>\n Bates enters with a program-record 15 wins, a top-four national seed, and elite defensive form behind goalkeeper Ava Donohue, the NESCAC Defensive Player of the Year. The Bobcats defeated both Amherst and Williams earlier this season and are 26\u20130 the past two years when scoring first.<\/p>\n Amherst arrives after a dramatic 2\u20131 upset of No. 10 Stevens, surviving a seven-round shootout behind goalkeeper Grace Puchalski. The Mammoths, led by Justine Liguori and first-year Emma Zhang, seek their first quarterfinal since 1999.<\/p>\n TUFTS vs WILLIAMS | 2 PM ET | <\/strong>STATS<\/strong><\/a> | <\/strong>WATCH<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n No. 6 Tufts (15\u20133) enters the weekend after an 11\u20130 first-round rout over Dean, the largest scoring output in program history and tied for the NCAA DIII tournament record. The Jumbos, making their 16th NCAA appearance, face Williams at 2 p.m. Saturday. Tufts owns one of the nation\u2019s top offenses (3.61 gpg) led by Hannah Biccard\u2019s NESCAC-best 15 goals, and anchors its defense with All-American goalkeeper Lydia Eastburn (1.05 GAA).<\/p>\n No. 18 Williams (9\u20138) advanced with a 4\u20130 victory over Vassar, extending their NCAA home streak to 5\u20130. The Ephs feature NESCAC Offensive Player of the Year Kiki Higgins (12 goals, 7 assists) and All-American goalie Ellie Smith (0.95 GAA). Williams beat Tufts 3\u20131 early in the season, though Tufts has dominated the series historically, including last year\u2019s NCAA semifinal win.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BATES vs AMHERST | 11 AM ET | STATS | WATCH No. 4 Bates hosts a rare all-NESCAC…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":572356,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5311],"tags":[49,978,659],"class_list":{"0":"post-572355","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-united-states","9":"tag-us","10":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115554649560151372","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572355","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=572355"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572355\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/572356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=572355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=572355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=572355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}