Teams always hope to be playing at their peak as the regular season winds down, with the goal of reaching their full potential in the postseason.

The Northwestern field hockey team certainly feels it is on track to do just that.

Northwestern (9-7-2 overall; 8-6-2 in Colonial League) won its last three games of the regular season to earn its second straight berth in the District 11 tournament. Entering last Tuesday’s senior night game against Catasauqua, the Lady Tigers needed to win two of their final three games. Win No. 1 came with an 8-0 romp over the Rough Riders (3-14-1; 3-12-1).

“Going into the Catty game we knew that we needed to win two more games to go to districts, so that made it a big game for us,” said senior Courtney Page, responsible for three assists and one goal. “And it was also senior night. Both of those factors pushed us to win.

“I’ve been waiting for senior night since freshman year and it’s a bittersweet feeling,” Page said. “On one hand I was excited because it was finally my senior night, but I was also sad because I love all of my teammates and coaches.”

Grace Horn, Camryn Beers and Avery George were the other three seniors honored prior to last week’s game.

After posting that dominant showing against the Rough Riders, Northwestern earned 1-0 victories in back-to-back days against Palisades and Palmerton to cement its district appearance. Page scored both goals in those victories.

“We have won three games in a row and I feel like we are playing our best hockey because we’re all in really good shape from playing all of the time,” Page said. “And our stick skills have also improved.”

Against the Rough Riders, the scoring started early and seemed like it would never stop. Rachel Koerner scored the first goal on an assist from Allison Costa midway through the first half. Then, Danielle Schmidt punched in a loose ball off a rebound into the back for the cage for a quick 2-0 advantage.

Page set up Koerner for her second goal of the first half to make it a 3-0 lead going into intermission.

The scoring spree continued in the second half. Page set up Costa beautifully for her second goal of the game, and then Page, who will play at Slippery Rock University next year, found an open Allyson Meyers to give Northwestern a 5-0 lead.

Jordan Nielson punched in goals six and seven for the Lady Tigers, and Page ended the scoring day with a goal in the final moments.

“We’re all really excited to have qualified for the district playoffs for the second straight year,” Page said. “We are looking to make it further than we did last year.”

With the Colonial League field hockey tournament scheduled for this week and districts starting next week, Northwestern will have plenty of time on the practice field in preparation for its next opponent. They plan to spend that time polishing their skills in preparation for hopefully a lengthy playoff run.

“Our plan now with the week break that we have is to spend more time on our fundamentals, and try and go back and fix some things that we need to improve on that we couldn’t fix during the fast-paced regular season,” Page said.

The Tigers will likely be the No. 5 seed in the District 11 Class A tournament. Their first-round opponent next week will probably be Northern Lehigh, which currently resides in the No. 4 spot in the district rankings.