FREDERICK, Md.--The defending champion Hood College field hockey team travels to Aurora, N.Y., Saturday for the 2006 Atlantic Women's Colleges Conference tournament hosted by Wells College.

The Blazers (3-10, 2-2 AWCC) are the No. 3 seed in the tournament and will take on No. 2 College of Notre Dame (Md.) (3-10, 3-1 AWCC) at 2 p.m. in the second of two semifinal round matchups.

The fourth-seeded Blazers pulled off a dramatic upset over top-seeded Wilson College in the 2005 AWCC tournament. Kimberli Smith scored the only goal of the game 6:18 into the overtime session to clinch Hood's first field hockey title since 1999. The Phoenix outshot the Blazers 14-2 in the contest and held a 14-5 advantage on penalty corners.

Hood ended the 2006 regular season with a pair of shutouts over non-conference opponents at Thomas Athletic Field. In fact, all three of Hood's victories this season came via the shutout.

Freshman Brandy Noel has enjoyed an outstanding rookie campaign with the Blazers. The native of Severn, Md., leads the team with 12 points on five goals and two assists. Junior Justina Miller follows close behind with 11 points on five goals with one assist. In all, nine different players have recorded goals for the Blazers this season.

Goalkeeper Ashley Saylor has appeared in the cage in all 13 games and owns a 3.31 goal-against average. She has made 118 saves this fall, second-most in the league.

Ashley Demski paces the Gator offense with five goals and two assists while Faith Wassink has set up six of Dame's goals on the season. Two keepers have split time in the cage for CND. Amanda Arkwright has played in 12 games and allowed 39 goals while making 97 stops and Jessica Maier has appeared in 10 contests, allowing 28 goals and saving 38 shots.

In the other semi-final matchup of the tournament, top-seeded Wilson College (7-9, 4-0 AWCC) takes on host and No. 4 seed Wells College (1-12, 1-3 AWCC) at 11 a.m. The consolation and championship matches will take place on Sunday at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m., respectively.