FIeld Hockey Looks to Mirror 2010 Playoff Run

The field hockey team will travel to play Dover Thursday in the quarterfinals of the MIAA South Division 2 playoffs after the bracket was announced Monday.

"We play such a tough conference that the competition that we see on a regular basis is what helps us go far," said coach Erin MacDonald.

Dedham (10-7-1) enters the tournament as a 12 seed, and will play a Dover team that enters at 15-1-2. The Raiders are one of seven teams with one loss or less in the tournament.

"I"m pretty happy with getting seeded 12th - that's a better seed than last year [19th], so that is a small improvement," MacDonald said.

For many of the Marauders, the challenge of upsetting fifth-seeded Dover of the Tri-Valley Conference isn't anything new. The team is returning several players that a year ago before losing to Canton High School.

The 2010 team pulled off three upsets of , and as a No. 19 seed.

"It does help knowing that any team is capable of anything in the tournament," MacDonald said. "The seed can be misleading in a good way, it can be misleading in a bad way. You don't know the type of team you're playing until you get there. It helps them realize they can't take the game for granted."

So this year, MacDonald has here girls focusing on different situations - like playing golden goal overtime (Dedham won a pair of OT games in the 2010 tourney).

"It will take a few days to pick apart the few things we need to work on," MacDonald said.

The winner of Thursday's game will either play No. 4 Apponequet (14-1-1) or No. 13 Medway (7-6-1).