Tufts Won the 2025 DIII Title as an At-Large

Tufts won the 2025 NCAA DIII field hockey championship 2-1 in overtime against Johns Hopkins on Nov. 23 at Trinity College. The Jumbos finished 19-3. They had entered the 28-team field as one of 10 at-large teams after a loss in their conference tournament.

Undefeated Christopher Newport, NESCAC champion Bates, and seven-time defending champion Middlebury were all gone before the trophy came out. Johns Hopkins, the Centennial automatic qualifier, was the last team standing in the other half and still left Hartford without the title.

Eight NESCAC Teams Walked Into a 28-Team Field

The NCAA Division III Field Hockey Committee named the field on Nov. 9, 2025. Eighteen conferences sent automatic qualifiers. Ten at-large berths filled the rest. Twenty-four teams played 12 first-round games on campus sites on Nov. 12. The four teams with byes, plus the 12 survivors, moved to four campus sites on Nov. 15 and 16. Winners went to Hartford on Nov. 21 and 23.

The New England Small College Athletic Conference put a conference-record eight programs into that draw. Bates took the automatic bid after its first league title and received one of the four byes. The other seven NESCAC sides, Tufts among them, came through the at-large pool. Christopher Newport, 17-0 out of the Coast to Coast Athletic Conference, also needed an at-large, then received the No. 1 overall seed anyway.

The 28 teams the committee named included Johns Hopkins (Centennial), Babson (NEWMAC), Endicott, Salisbury, Rowan, and a long list of one-bid leagues. The top four seeds sat out Wednesday: Christopher Newport, Bates, Johns Hopkins, and Babson.

THE FOUR BYE TEAMS

Every bye team reached the last eight. None of them lifted the trophy. The champion had to win on Wednesday in Medford and keep winning through two NESCAC neighbors and the unbeaten No. 1.

Tufts Needed an At-Large Bid After a League Loss

Tufts was 14-3 at selection, 9-1 in the NESCAC, and the No. 5 team in the final NPI rankings. The Jumbos still needed one of the 10 at-large spots because they had lost in the NESCAC semifinals. It was their 16th NCAA berth and their seventh straight trip. Head coach Tina Mattera’s staff hosted Dean College in the first round at Ounjian Field.

They had opened the season 3-2 on a short roster. Mattera said after the final that it was the smallest group the program had carried since before Covid, and that she had been nervous about it in preseason.

We have just progressively gotten better and better. We were 3-2 at the start of the season and I didn’t know where we were going to go. The girls just kept working hard and they were really supportive of each other.

Tina Mattera, Tufts head coach, after the 2025 NCAA final

Dean was the Great Northeast automatic qualifier at 16-7. Tufts beat the Bulldogs 11-0, matching the Division III record for goals in an NCAA tournament game. That was the only easy night. Everything after it ran through NESCAC or through a No. 1 that had not lost.

The Bracket Ate the Defending Champion First

Middlebury came in as the seven-time defending national champion, titles in 2017, 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024, with 2020 canceled. The Panthers were 12-5 at selection and an at-large, not the NESCAC automatic team. They still looked like the program that had owned the decade.

They opened 6-0 over Westfield State, then survived Endicott 3-2 in double overtime. Johns Hopkins ended the run the next afternoon, 3-0, in the quarterfinals. That was Hopkins’ fourth trip to a national final in five tournaments if it got through Babson, and it did. The streak that had beaten Tufts 2-1 in the 2024 final in Lexington, Va., stopped in the last eight.

Bates, the league champion with the bye, hosted second- and third-round games. Amherst beat Stevens 2-1 and then lost to Bates 1-0. Tufts, coming off a 2-1 double-overtime win over Williams, beat Bates 3-1 on Nov. 16. The NESCAC automatic qualifier was out. The NESCAC at-large that had lost in the league semis was in the Final Four.

TWO WEEKS IN NOVEMBER

1. Nov. 9, 2025: Committee announces the 28-team field on NCAA.com.
2. Nov. 12, 2025: Twelve first-round games; Tufts 11-0 over Dean; four seeds sit.
3. Nov. 15, 2025: Second round, including Tufts 2-1 in double overtime over Williams and Middlebury 3-2 in double overtime over Endicott.
4. Nov. 16, 2025: Quarterfinals; Tufts 3-1 over Bates; Johns Hopkins 3-0 over Middlebury; Christopher Newport 1-0 over Salisbury.
5. Nov. 21, 2025: Semifinals at Trinity; Tufts 1-0 over Christopher Newport.
6. Nov. 23, 2025: Championship; Tufts 2-1 in overtime over Johns Hopkins.

Wesleyan, Hamilton, Bowdoin, and Williams all won a game or hosted one and were gone by Sunday of the second weekend. The conference that sent eight teams sent one to Hartford, and it was not the one with the automatic bid.

Christopher Newport’s Perfect Season Ended 1-0

Christopher Newport arrived in Hartford at 19-0, the unanimous No. 1 in the final NFHCA poll, with the nation’s stingiest defense. The Captains had a bye, then beat Lynchburg 2-1 in overtime and Salisbury 1-0 at home. They were in a second Final Four in program history and had never played for the title.

Tufts had beaten them in 2014 and 2015 and had not seen them since. On a cloudy Friday at Robin L. Sheppard Field, with 359 in the stands, the Jumbos scored once and made it stand. Junior Lilly Ragusa finished a deflection at 17:37 of the second quarter, assisted by Hannah Biccard. Tufts goalkeeper Lydia Eastburn and defender Claire Casey turned away a first-quarter corner scramble. A late penalty stroke from Hannah Murray was saved. The Captains closed 19-1.

The 1-0 was the whole game. Tufts outshot them 8-5. Both sides took three corners. No. 6 had ended No. 1’s season and booked a sixth program trip to the NCAA final, and a second straight after the 2024 loss to Middlebury.

Hannah Biccard Won It One Minute Into Overtime

Johns Hopkins came out of the other semifinal at 22-1 and had already beaten WPI 6-0 and Middlebury 3-0. The Blue Jays had been in this game before, including three losses to Middlebury in the early 2020s. Tufts had been in it too, and had lost three straight championship games after winning in 2012.

First-year Eleanor Helm scored first. Ragusa picked off a pass and found her just over the 23-meter line, and Helm slammed a shot to the far post for her 13th goal with 4:54 left in the first quarter. Hopkins answered in less than two minutes. A corner shot by Jenna Halpin was deflected, Eastburn got a piece, and Eliza Vander knocked in the rebound at 3:03. That was the last goal of regulation.

Hopkins held an 8-2 edge in corners and had the better of the second and third quarters. Eastburn made her best save on Kaitlin Coward in the third. Megan Chang flipped a shot wide in the fourth. Tufts earned a corner with four seconds left and fouled on the insert. Shots finished 8-8. Eastburn and Hopkins goalkeeper Aubrey Kilgore each made four saves.

Overtime was seven-on-seven. Hopkins started with the ball. Senior Gabby Sousa forced a foul. Helm was fouled just outside the circle and restarted to senior Camille Clarke, who took a back-hand from the top of the circle. Biccard reached up and deflected it in. The assist was the first point of Clarke’s four-year career. Biccard’s 17th goal was the most by a Jumbo since 2010. She had scored the game-winning goal one minute into overtime.

TUFTS NCAA PATH

• First round: Tufts 11, Dean 0, at Ounjian Field.
• Second round: Tufts 2, Williams 1, double overtime.
• Quarterfinal: Tufts 3, Bates 1, on the NESCAC champion’s site.
• Semifinal: Tufts 1, Christopher Newport 0, at Trinity College.
• Final: Tufts 2, Johns Hopkins 1, overtime, at Trinity College.

The Jumbos took down Johns Hopkins 2-1 in overtime for the program’s second national title. Team IMPACT, which pairs children facing serious illness with college teams, had a guest named Mia on the field after the trophy. Hopkins had still been selling “free hockey in Hartford” when the fourth quarter ended 1-1, and the corner count said they were right to believe it.

FH | (RECAP)
Field Hockey Wins NCAA Championship With 2-1 OT Victory Against Johns Hopkins#JumboPride // #GoJumbos // #d3fhhttps://t.co/TWhnshV50N

— Tufts Jumbos (@TuftsJumbos) November 23, 2025

Johns Hopkins Reached a Fourth Final and Left Without the Trophy

Hopkins finished 22-2 as national runner-up. The Blue Jays had now played in four NCAA finals without a title, three of those against Middlebury and one against Tufts. Babson, the other No. 4 seed, went out in the other semifinal. Salisbury, 5-0 over Denison and 5-0 over Dickinson, died 1-0 to Christopher Newport in the quarters.

Division III field hockey championship history had been a Middlebury document for most of a decade. Katharine DeLorenzo’s Panthers stacked nine titles in all, second only to TCNJ’s 11. Tufts is now on two, with Bowdoin on four and Salisbury on five. The 2025 final also went onto the sheet as Mattera’s second championship, 13 years after the first.

RECENT DIII CHAMPIONS

Hartford had already seen Middlebury beat Johns Hopkins 4-1 in the 2021 final on the same Trinity grounds. Four years later the host field belonged to a NESCAC at-large that had not even won its league.

The Jumbos Opened 2026 Without Their Player of the Year

Biccard graduated as the NFHCA Division III National Player of the Year, with 17 goals and 40 points. Eastburn, an All-American in goal, and four-year starter Sousa left with her. Helm is back after 13 goals, seven assists, and 33 points as a first-year, and Ragusa is back after the semifinal winner and eight goals. The 2026 preview from the athletic department says the staff returns more than a dozen players from the title group, plus eight first-years.

Mattera, in her 21st season, was named to the NFHCA Hall of Fame Class of 2026 on Aug. 10, 2026. The association listed 305 wins, two NCAA titles, three NESCAC titles, 14 NCAA appearances, and a rank of 11th among active Division III head coaches. The class dinner is set for Jan. 14, 2027, in Lake Mary, Florida. “I am truly shocked, humbled, and grateful,” she said in the announcement.

The Jumbos were No. 1 in the NFHCA preseason poll and started 2026 8-0, their first 8-0 opening since 2018, after Ragusa and Helm scored in a 2-0 win over Babson on Sept. 29. Last year’s NESCAC scoring rate was 3.32 goals per game. Mattera’s stated aim for the new year was narrower than a repeat. “Our goal is just to play better hockey,” she said. The 2025 bracket had already shown what a 3-2 start, a league-semifinal loss, and an at-large seed could still become in two weeks of November.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who Won the 2025 NCAA Division III Field Hockey Championship?

Tufts, which finished 19-3 and tied the school record for wins. The title was the 16th NCAA championship won by a Tufts team, all of them since 2010, and the program’s second in field hockey after a 2-1 win over Montclair State in 2012.

Who Was Named Most Outstanding Player of the 2025 DIII Field Hockey Final Four?

Hannah Biccard, who scored the overtime winner. Eleanor Helm, Claire Casey, and Gabby Sousa were named to the all-tournament team at Trinity College.

Which Program Has Won the Most NCAA Division III Field Hockey Titles?

TCNJ has 11, from 1981 through 2014. Middlebury is next with 9. Salisbury has 5, Bowdoin 4, and Tufts now has 2.

How Does Overtime Work in an NCAA Field Hockey Championship Game?

After a 1-1 regulation, the 2025 final went to seven-on-seven sudden-victory overtime, and the first goal ended it. Johns Hopkins started with possession; Tufts forced a foul, and Biccard scored one minute in.