Middlebury’s Peter Kohn Field is set to host the 2027 Division III Field Hockey Championship. This marks the first time that Middlebury will host the national championship for field hockey.
The school has only hosted 12 NCAA National Championships in Middlebury Athletics history, with the most recent event being the 2022 women’s ice hockey championship. The other events hosted by Middlebury have been for skiing, men’s hockey and women’s hockey. This is the first time the school will host a fall national championship.
The field hockey team will hopefully continue their era of dominance and play a championship game at home in 2027. The team, looking to win their seventh consecutive national championship this year, has had to play on the road in past years during the postseason. In 2023, the Panthers won their national championship in Newport News, Va., and the year before, they won in Glassboro, N.J.
Peter Kohn Field has also undergone a number of renovations in recent years to make it an ideal site to host a NCAA Championship. This past summer, the school installed a two-story pressbox on the field. Two years ago, the field was resurfaced, and in 2011, the school added lights to the complex, allowing the field hockey and women’s lacrosse teams to play night games.
While 2027 is still a few seasons away, the field hockey team is making good progress in their quest to win another championship this year. This past weekend, the Panthers (10–0) earned two wins on the road, beating Bowdoin College (3–6) on Saturday 4–1 and University of New England (5–6) on Sunday 8–1. The pair of wins gave the field hockey team ten straight wins to start the 2024 campaign and extended their winning streak to 41 games, dating back to 2022. The field hockey team is now one win short of equalling their 42 game win streak that ended two years ago.
Caroline Segal ’24.5 was the star of this past weekend scoring three goals and recording one assist in the two games played. Izzy Redzic ’27 also played well in goal, only allowing one goal in over 100 minutes in front of the net.
Segal is just one of countless Middlebury field hockey players that rank at the top of the NESCAC statistics leaderboards. Segal’s 11 goals this year are good enough for second in the conference. Only her teammate, Georgianne Defeo ’26 has more goals, with a total of 13. Amy Griffin ’24.5 is second in the NESCAC with ten assists and has been in excellent form recently. The midfielder earned NESCAC Player of the Week accolades the week of Sept. 23 after registering two goals and three assists in one week.
Defensively, the Panthers are also strong. Redzic is third in the NESCAC in lowest goals against average with a mark of .720. She also has two shutouts this season.
The Panthers look to continue their dominance this weekend at home against Colby College (2–4). They are set to play at Peter Kohn Field at 12 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 12.
