Over the past week the Northwestern Lehigh field hockey team field hockey added a pair of shutout wins to give it 11 shutouts this season. The wins made the Lady Tigers the Colonial League South Division champions and set them up to be the top seed in the league playoffs, which get underway next week.

Northwestern (13-0-0 Colonial League; 14-3-0 overall) defeated Northern Lehigh 7-0 and then returned the next day to traveled to Palmerton where it added a 4-0 win. In the win over Palmerton, Olivia Costa scored a pair of goals while the Tigers got single goals from Ella Dangello and Cara Thomas to seal the win.

Costa has had a strong senior season and leads the team in goals (20), assists (8), and points (48). Thomas, who is also a senior, is second on the team in all three categories with 17 goals, six assists, and 40 points this season.

Northwestern wraps up the regular season with a game against Lehighton (6-7-1, 7-8-1) at Tiger Stadium.

“We’re looking forward to taking one game at a time and using the out of conference games we played this summer and in the past two weeks to prepare us for what is to come in the postseason,” said Tiger head coach Lissa Opolsky. “We are looking forward to spending more time on the field.”

With the addition of Jim Thorpe and Tamaqua to the Colonial League, the league playoffs have been expanded from six to eight teams, which eliminates the quarterfinal round bye for the top two seeds.

As the top seed in the league tournament, Northwestern will host the eighth seeded team in the quarterfinals. There are currently three teams – Saucon Valley, Pen Argyl, and Lehighton – battling for the final two spots in the league playoffs. All three teams are 6-7-1 going into their final league game.