A Fall Tournament Primer

The "Final Fours" are set for the 2005 Centennial field hockey, men's soccer, women's soccer and volleyball championship tournaments this weekend at four locations. Here are some things to look for on Saturday and Sunday.

Field Hockey
Six of the 10 previous semifinal matches have been one-goal matches but only one has gone to overtime ... the No. 2 seed has lost four straight semifinal games since Swarthmore defeated Washington, 2-0, in 2000 ... all five title games have been one-goal decisions with last season's Ursinus-F&M match going to extra time ... since the tournament began in 2000, no team has repeated as champion ... the last time to defend its title was Gettysburg in 1997-98 ... the No. 1 seed has won the tournament in even-numbered years - Hopkins (2000), McDaniel (2002) and Ursinus (2004) ... the Bears have won four of five previous meetings with Hopkins, but the only loss came in the 2003 CC semis, 1-0 ... Gettysburg and McDaniel square off for the 36th time in their storied history with the Bullets holding a 25-5-5 advantage ... Gettysburg captured a 3-2 decision in the 2003 CC semis ... the Terror's last win was a 1-0 triumph in 2002.

Men's Soccer
The top seed has won the last three championships by one-goal decisions ... Gettysburg captured the 2001 title as a No. 4 seed by the largest margin in a final in the tourney's four-year history, 2-0 ... the No. 2 seed has reached the championship match in all four tournaments ... five of the eight previous first-round matches have gone to overtime ... in 2002 and 2004, all semi matches went to OT ... this is the 64th time that McDaniel and Gettysburg have met on the pitch since 1931 ... the Bullets lead 30-25-8 and defeated the Terror, 2-0, to win the 2001 championship ... Swarthmore and Muhlenberg meet for the 51st time since 1943 ... the Mules hold a 26-22-2 advantage and defeated the Garnet, 1-0, in the regular season ... no team has repeated as Centennial champion since Muhlenberg in 1994-95.

Women's Soccer
The top seed has won three of the four championship tournaments with the only exception coming in 2002 ... the No. 2 seed has only advanced to the final one time (Gettysburg, 2003) ... the fourth seed has only reached once as well (Gettysburg, 2002) ... Dickinson trails its all-time series with Ursinus, 6-4, but defeated the Bears, 1-0, on Sept. 24 ... Hopkins holds a 7-5-2 series lead on Haverford since 1993 and defeated the Fords, 2-1, on Sept. 17... the Jays edged Haverford, 2-1, in overtime in the 2004 semis ... ironically, the Fords are 3-0-1 against JHU in their last four matches on grass.

Volleyball
The top seed has won the tournament in six of the seven previous events with the only exception coming in 2002 (Muhlenberg) ... the No. 2 seed has also been in the final six times with F&M breaking the streak last fall ... the championship match has gove five times twice (1998, 2002) ... eight of the 14 semifinal matches have been three-game sweeps, while three have gone the distance ... the top seed has lost just two games in the semis ... F&M and Hopkins have met five times in the semis with the Diplomats winning the first three and the Jays the last two ... Haverford has lost to Gettysburg in the last four CC semifinals but defeated the Bullets in five games in the regular season ... the Orange and Blue has won the last four Centennial titles.