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The Wootton field hockey team faced an uphill battle Thursday, travelling to face a team to which it had lost, 2-0, in the first game of the season.

When Magruder's Paige Twigg allowed a pass from Tori Meyers to run across her body before slapping it into the cage less than 8 minutes into the Class 4A South Region quarterfinal, it spelled further trouble for the low-scoring Patriots. Sure enough, the Colonels dominated the midfield and added a late insurance goal for another 2-0 win.

"That's the curse of our season," Wootton coach Mike Parrish said. "We score a goal, if we score. We have to break the code on that. But their midfield is the best we've seen all season; that's probably the strongest team we saw all season."

The Colonels (9-6), seeded third, will host No. 7 Whitman in Tuesday's semifinal round. The Vikings knocked off second-seeded Springbrook in penalty strokes.

Magruder had lost to the Blue Devils earlier this season, and in last year's regional semifinals.

"Whitman's always a solid program, and they've had a good season," Magruder coach Kathleen Mulholland said. "We saw them in a scrimmage and they beat us, but we didn't see them in the regular season."

Wootton (7-6) had its chances, particularly flurries late in both halves. Perhaps its best opportunity came at the 24:19 mark of the second half, when Magruder's defense allowed a ball to roll through to goalkeeper Zia Frazier.

Frazier tried to kick clear, but Amy Rubin pounced on it for Wootton. From her knees, Rubin took two point-blank swipes at the ball, both directly into Frazier's pads.

Four minutes later, Magruder fired a warning shot when Bolu Odubayo redirected a cross between the legs of Wootton goalie Caitlin Zolet. The ball skidded wide left, but the Colonels' second goal was a carbon copy of that attack.

This time, Colleen Harwood knocked a ball from the right side of the circle, and Odubayo got her stick on it right in front of Zolet.

"In the playoffs, you always win or lose by one or two goals, so you can't just score early and play defense," Mulholland said. "One thing we need to work on is releasing on the ball early. That's what happened on Bolu's goal, it was a nice early release by Harwood."

While Magruder advances to face Whitman, the Patriots prepare for the offseason and the graduation of several seniors, including the reliable Zolet.

"I've got a wonderful group of seniors who have worked hard for four years," Parrish said. "But as good as our seniors were this year, nobody stays forever. We have kids ready to step up and play at that level, and exceed that level."