After a long battle that went into sudden death overtime, one girls’ field hockey team picked up a first-place finish as senior champions in the Dartmouth Girls Athletic League on October 25.

DGAL names its field hockey teams after colleges. Boston University faced off against five other DGAL teams in the senior division – covering grades 6 through 8 – in a double-elimination tournament before going up against Florida State in the championship game. A scoreless game gave way to four sudden death overtime rounds in which the first team to score would be declared the winner. Boston University scored first, picking up a 1-0 win.

The win solidified the team’s undefeated 9-0-1 record, noted coach Alison Caito-Galligan. She credited her strong team – which included two eighth graders, seven seventh graders, and four sixth graders – with performing well and topping off a great season.

“The girls showed up ready to play,” Caito-Galligan said.

The championship closes the fifth year of DGAL’s field hockey program, which has seen growing popularity every year since it started, according to DGAL organizer Sherri Tetrault.

She said the program originally began with just the senior division after there was a lot of demand for a youth field hockey program. Over the years, more grade levels were added on to create the current format, which includes three divisions covering kindergarten to eighth grade.

“We really wanted to get these girls playing earlier,” Tetrault said.

Currently, the program has 120 girls in all three divisions, and Tetrault expects those numbers to increase. She said more attention is being put on the program as many students who grew up playing field hockey transition to high school and try out for the field hockey team there, spreading the word about the program.