LORETTO, Pa. – The Saint Francis University field hockey team opens its quest for its first Northeast Conference Tournament on Friday on the campus of Wagner College in Staten Island, N.Y. The Red Flash will face No. 3 Sacred Heart University at 2 p.m.
 
Ticket prices are $10 for adults, $5 from senior citizens and children between the ages of 11-18. Children under the age of 11 and NEC students with an institutional I.D. will be admitted free.
 
In the other semifinals, top seed and regular season champion Fairfield University (13-3, 7-0 NEC) will face fourth seed Wagner College (6-10, 4-3 NEC) at 11 a.m. Both games will air on NEC Front Row/ESPN+ and Wagner will provide live stats.
 
Saint Francis (10-7, 5-2 NEC) enters the NEC Tournament as the No. 2 seed for the second time in NEC Tournament history. The Red Flash were led in the regular season by junior defender Eva Valentini (Junin, Argentina/Colegio Mariansta), who leads the team with nine goals and three assists for 21 points. Freshman midfielder Marie Sattler (Kaiserslautern, Germany/Hohenstaufen-Gymnasium) ranked second on the team with two tallies and 10 assists for 14 points, while sophomore defender Madison Waldspurger (Hatfield, Pa./North Penn) ranked third on the squad with three markers and six assists for 12 points. Redshirt senior goalkeeper Amber Bryan (Thorndale, Pa./Bishop Shanahan) has 43 saves, 1.15 goals against average and a .741 save percentage.
 
Sacred Heart (6-10, 4-3 NEC) is led by freshman senior midfielder Isabelle Chamberlain with seven goals and three assists for 17 points. Freshman forward Madelyn Kidd is second on the squad with five markers and four assists for 14 points and senior forward Claire Skumurski ranks third with five goals for 10 points. Junior goalkeeper Samantha Maresca has 107 saves, 3.25 goals against average and a .690 save percentage.
 
Saint Francis and Sacred Heart will play for the second time in seven days in Staten Island after the Pioneers defeated the Red Flash 2-0 on Friday in the regular season finale. Chamberlain and Skurmurski registered the two tallies for Sacred Heart in the winning effort. Bryan made one stop for Saint Francis and Maresca had four saves for the Pioneers.
 
Saint Francis will be making its seventh appearance in a conference postseason and the fifth time the Red Flash will participate in the NEC Tournament (2007, 2011, 2012, 2022, 2023). The squad also advanced to the Atlantic-10 postseason twice (2014, 2016). It marks the second time in program history and the first since the 2012 campaign the team will be the No. 2 seed in the postseason. The Red Flash and Sacred Heart will square off in the postseason for the first time. The Loretto program has scored two goals in the postseason and will be looking for its first appearance in a championship game.
 
Saint Francis is coached by Maria Bettiana Ceretta, who is in her seventh season as the head coach of the Red Flash. The squad will be making its second postseason appearance under Ceretta, who guided the 2023 team to its second-best NEC record for the second-straight season and its fifth 10-win season in program history.
 
The Pioneers will be making their 10th appearance in the NEC Tournament with a title in 2005. Sacred Heart is 3-8 in the NEC postseason. The Pioneers are coached by Sydney Van Der Merwe and he will be in his second postseason with the team and the first since the 2019 campaign.