Wrapping up field hockey's regular season

The GIST: Cross country and women’s soccer are starting the postseason party, but fockey’s right behind them. Most conferences’ regular seasons end this weekend before tournaments begin bullying next week, so here’s the tea on conference play’s grand finale.

The ACC: How does it feel to rob your mortal enemy of sole ownership of the regular-season title? No. 4 UNC would love to find out, and they’ll have their chance when they play No. 2 Duke tonight at 6 p.m. ET. If UNC wins, they’ll tie Duke’s regular-season record and steal the top seed for next week’s tourney.

The Big Ten: The No. 1 Northwestern Wildcats put the finishing touches on their perfect conference record with last night’s 5–1 shellacking of No. 7 Maryland, guaranteeing a bye through to the tourney’s semis. As for everyone else, they’re playing this weekend hoping to avoid the Nos. 4 and 5 seeds, which would keep their path to the title game ’Cat-free.

• Tonight’s 5 p.m. ET game between No. 8 Iowa and No. 3 Rutgers could be crucial on that front: With a loss, once-hot Iowa could drop to the No. 6 seed, avoiding Northwestern’s half of the bracket. Almost makes tanking seem worth it…

The mid-majors: The Ivy League's set for a spicy 12 p.m. ET finale tomorrow as No. 9 Harvard tries to defend their undefeated conference record and sole ownership of the regular-season trophy from a surging No. 17 Cornell.

• It’s a nearly identical scene in the A-10 conference: No. 13 St. Joseph’s must fend off a streaking LaSalle…but unlike Harvard, SJU will have home-field advantage against their conference rivals today at 3 p.m. ET.