St. Joe’s advances to Final Four in NCAA field hockey for the first time in program history

Fifth-year senior Kate Crist will likely never forget this birthday, and neither will the St. Joseph’s field hockey history books.

The No. 4 Hawks (19-3) earned a spot in the NCAA Final Four with a 1-0 win over Princeton at Ellen Ryan Field on Sunday, marking the first time in program history that the program has reached the semifinals.

“This team is relentless, resilient. They’re gritty. They’re go-getters. They hold each other accountable. They have fun doing it, and it’s just super special,” said coach Hannah Prince. “I always say, that leadership group that we have, those upperclassmen, they just eat, sleep, and breathe this program and what it means to be a Hawk.”

Going into the game, Prince’s message to her team was to treat it like any other game.

“I just didn’t want the girls to add more pressure than they needed, because I knew that if we played our game, we can beat anyone,” Prince said. “I just really wanted them to play loose, have fun out there, and be super stingy on D and then free-flowing on attack and create like we always do, and I knew that they would so.”

After a scoreless 55 minutes, fifth-year senior Celeste Smits found the back of the cage to put the Hawks on the board with under five minutes remaining.

“After I scored that goal, I looked over to our fans, and I just felt all their energy,” Smits said. “We had four or five minutes left, and I was like, ‘OK, we got to lock back in because we’re not done yet.’”

But once the last few seconds on the clock wound down, all of the emotions of the moment followed.

“Every time I look at somebody new, I cry like it’s just an overwhelming emotion, and it’s just so exciting,” Crist said. “It’s fun to make history, and it’s even more fun to do it next to your best friends. There’s just no better feeling.”

Crist transferred to St. Joe’s for her sophomore year after spending her first year at Penn State. Smits said reaching the Final Four together is something that she and Crist have wanted to do since their first year together.

“I looked at Kate, our captain, and we just burst in tears,” Smits said. “Ever since we were together, this was one of our goals, and we finally reached it in our last year.”

» READ MORE: Back-to-back Big 5 wins give St. Joe’s another title game trip — and important momentum

Crist said having a tight-knit group like St. Joe’s has only made the experience more special and will hopefully continue to help the Hawks going forward.

“We want to be together all the time, and we want to make each other better, and we want to win for each other, and not just for ourselves, and we’re so selfless,” Crist said. “The team wants to compete, and we believe in ourselves more than anybody believes in us. And I keep telling the team, that will take us wherever we need to go because our belief is the only thing that we need at the end of the day, and that’s what we have.”

The next place St. Joe’s will need to go is Ann Arbor, Mich., as they prepare to face reigning champion North Carolina, led by Chadds Ford native Erin Matson.

“They’re an incredibly talented team, and have had amazing results this year, and just historically,’ Prince said. “Really paying into the details and just figuring out what areas, that I always say, that we can exploit.”

With the moment getting bigger, Crist said the focus going into next week will be having the right headspace.

“We always talk about focusing on us, staying locked in, making sure that, you know, we’re the only people that matter. Our tight circle matters,” she added.

Meanwhile, Prince and her staff will focus more on the logistics.

“We’ll get to Michigan as soon as we can so that the girls can acclimate,” Prince said. “I know it’s going to be chilly, but we’ll have some recovery, and then get back to practice and just really strategize against, how we can beat UNC, and what we need to work on for the week.”

But for right now, they’ll continue relishing in the moment.

“Best birthday by far,” Crist said. “Probably won’t be able to top it for a little while, at least.”