BALTIMORE, MD – The Johns Hopkins field hockey team scored once in each of the first three quarters and held seven-time defending national champion Middlebury to just one shot through three quarters as the Blue Jays topped the Panthers, 3-0, in the NCAA Quarterfinals at Homewood Field on Sunday afternoon. The win – the 20th straight for Johns Hopkins – secures a spot in the NCAA Semifinals on Friday, November 21 against Babson, which topped Wesleyan (CT), 1-0, earlier on Sunday.
The Blue Jays (21-1) will be making their sixth trip in eight years to championship weekend (2018, 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2025) and did so by eliminating a Middlebury team that hadn't lost a game in the NCAA Tournament since 2016. The Panthers had eliminated Johns Hopkins from the NCAA Tournament in each of the last four years, including three times in the national championship game (2021, 2022, 2023) and once in the NCAA Quarterfinals (2024).
On Sunday, it was the Blue Jays who controlled play for a majority of the first three quarters and they were able to capitalize on three penalty corners.
After the first 10 minutes of the game saw little pressure from either team, the Blue Jays sprung sophomore An Tran into the circle and she drew a foul to set up the first corner of the game. Jenna Halpin's shot off the insert was saved by Izzy Redzic, but Tran controlled the rebound and sent a feed through the mouth of the goal that Grace Nockolds was able to poke home with 3:36 remaining in the opening period.
That one-goal lead held until early in the second quarter, when the Blue Jays were again lethal off a corner. Halpin again took the insert, but this time sent a quick feed back to the near post to junior Sophia Albano, who had started the play, and Albano tipped home her pass just inside the near post to double the Blue Jay lead.
Playing in extremely windy conditions, but now with the wind at their back, the Blue Jays increased the pressure in the third quarter and collected the only four shots and both corners awarded in the period. With just over five minutes remaining in the period, the Blue Jays capitalized off a corner with Halpin again in the middle of the action. After initially mishitting her first offering after the insert, she quickly collected the loose ball at the top and backhanded a shot towards the goal that junior Kaitlin Coward tipped home to extend the lead to 3-0.
Middlebury, which had erased a 2-0 deficit in the round of 16 one day earlier, played with the urgency of a seven-time defending national champion in the final 15 minutes, but the Blue Jay defense was up to the task. The Panthers outshot the Blue Jays 6-0 in the fourth quarter and collected seven corners, but Blue Jay goalie Aubrey Kilgore kicked aside the three of those six shots that were on cage to seal Johns Hopkins' trip to championship weekend.
Johns Hopkins held a slight edge in shots (8-7) and Middlebury ended the game with a 10-5 margin in corners with those seven in the fourth quarter. Kilgore finished with the three saves and Jessica Lapidus, who played the second quarter in goal for the Blue Jays, turned away the only shot the Panthers generated in the opening 45 minutes of the game.
Championship Weekend will feature Johns Hopkins and Babson playing in the second game of Friday's semifinal doubleheader (3:30 pm). The first game that day will see Christopher Newport taking on Tufts (12 pm).
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Gallery: (11-16-2025) Field Hockey vs. Middlebury
