It’s that time of year when we get a reminder how quickly the spring season goes in college sports in central Maine. The Thomas women’s lacrosse team will need to win twice this weekend and get some help to qualify for the playoffs.

Thomas (1-3 in the conference), New England College (3-1) and the University of Maine at Farmington (2-2) are battling for the final two playoff spots in the North Eastern Athletic Conference East Division. NEC plays Thomas and UMaine-Farmington this weekend, while Thomas and UMF each play Green Mountain.

No matter what, if Thomas wants to get in, the Terriers have to win both games. If UMF splits and both teams end up 3-3, the Beavers have the tiebreaker advantage, because they beat Thomas 10-9 on Saturday.

But if Thomas wins both, and UMF beats NEC and loses to Green Mountain, then there will be a three-way tie. In that case, Thomas and UMF would get in, and NEC would be out.

Thomas has still done pretty well for a team that lost top scorers Megan Denby (now an assistant coach) and Kiley Jolicoeur to graduation. Denby and Jolicoeur combined for 81 of the Terriers’ 141 goals last season, but Thomas is still scoring 9.1 goals per game, after averaging 9.4 last year.

“We have definitely distributed a lot of shots on the attack (among) a lot of shooters,” Thomas coach Lauren Bickford said.

Six different players are averaging at least two shots per game. Gardiner graduate Jenn Day leads Thomas in scoring, with 29 points on 23 goals and six assists.

Defensively, Skowhegan graduate Teshia Cates has been consistent in goal, and Terrisa Ridge and Jasmine Roy have been strong on the back line of defense.

“They’ve really been a solid foundation for our defense,” Bickford said. “You can always depend on them, when it comes to getting those ground balls and getting the ball back upfield.”

Ridge is the only senior for Thomas, and Bickford said she has seen the team improve a lot since opening the season March 27.

“They’ve come a long way, that’s for sure,” Bickford said. “Once we got into conference play, we could really see them start to step up and play together, and really see what being on a college team is all about.”

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The Colby women’s lacrosse team also has two games left in the regular season, but the Mules have been assured of a playoff spot for quite some time. Colby is ranked eighth in the latest Division III national poll, and will play at No. 6 Middlebury at 11 a.m., Saturday.

Colby is 11-1, while Middlebury is 10-1. Both teams have lost only to Trinity, another New England Small College Athletic Conference school and one that is ranked third in the country.

The Mules continue to play close games against NESCAC rivals. The largest margin of victory either way in Colby’s conference games was four goals in a 14-10 victory over Williams — and Colby trailed in that game 9-5 late in the first half.

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It looks like the upcoming four-game series between Thomas and Castleton will decide who hosts the NEAC East playoffs. That tournament will be in double-elimination format, and will be played April 27-29. The winner then plays the West Division winner the following weekend in New York.

The regular-season champion hosts the tournament. Entering Thursday’s games, Castleton was 17-1 in the conference, while Thomas was 16-2.

The games were scheduled to be played Saturday and Sunday. But with Sunday’s forecast filled with rain, the doubleheaders will now begin at 2 p.m., today and noon Saturday. Both doubleheaders will be played at Thomas College.

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The Thomas and the University of Maine at Farmington softball teams are each comfortably in playoff position — the league takes eight of the nine teams — and could wind up playing each other in the quarterfinals Tuesday. Thomas is in fourth place with a 9-6-1 conference record, while the Beavers are in fifth place at 6-6.

UMF has two players — Shannon Mitchell and Mt. Blue graduate Kaitlyn Bartlett — in the top 25 nationally for slugging percentage in the latest NCAA Division III statistics. The Beavers are also 11th in the country in team home runs per game. UMF had 22 homers in 26 games entering Thursday’s action. Twenty one of those came from three players: Bartlett, Mitchell, and Cony graduate Amy Jones have seven apiece.

Thomas pitcher Kelsey Crowe is just short of the innings needed to qualify, but she has one of the best walk rates in the country. Crowe has walked nine batters and struck out 72 in 73 innings.

Matt DiFilippo — 861-9243

mdifilippo@centralmaine.com

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