Month: July 2015

As the season progresses, I will give a more detailed account of each opponent as game day approaches, but I thought I would give a quick overview of the upcoming schedule. The overall schedule will have the Leopards meeting 5 NCAA tournament teams and two final four teams including the NCAA national division one champion. Out of conference games are usually constructed to give your team a chance to reconstitute itself, as old and new team members are integrated into a smooth operating unit. The Leopards have a small jump on that process with a successful trip to Spain, as the extra days of practice and games with good competition have helped the younger players gain confidence. That is a first part of the process as new first year players will join the team on August 13.

The first game will be with Ball State on on August 30 as they will arrive at Rappolt Field for the second time in four years. The last game with Ball State resulted in a 5-1 victory for the Leopards, but Ball State will come with a new competitive coach who will have a different outcome in mind.  The Leopards will not enter the game cold turkey, as multiple practice days will be highlighted with two scrimmages, where the coaches will be able take a look at their charges in Division one competition. The first scrimmage will be a home event at 7pm on August 21 against Big Ten foe Rutgers University. Four days later the Leopards will board a team bus to New York to take on Columbia University on the afternoon August 25 for their final tune up. It is also the day before freshmen orientation and they will move into their new dorm rooms and participate in a  series of meetings and events designed especially for them.

The next game will feature Siena College as one of the ten home games scheduled this year. The Sept 1 game will be a night game at 7 pm under the lights.The Leopards will then travel south to Virginia to take on Longwood University for the first time in many years. The Leopards continue their tour of Virginia to take on the tough Liberty University Flames who won their conference last year and lost to UNC in the first round of the NCAAs 2-1. The Flames will be looking to avenge a 4-2 loss last year in Easton. The Leopards will begin to get into the meat of their schedule against an always tough Monmouth squad before taking on annual foe Quinnipiac who will be trying to avenge a 3-2 overtime loss from last year. On saturday Sept 19 Lafayette again boards a bus this time to Boston as they open their league schedule against last year’s league champion Boston University. Lafayette will be out to get their first win against the Terriers since they entered the League. Lafayette in both contests lost by 1 goal despite out shooting and out cornering their opponent. It will be an intensive weekend as Lafayette will go to Uconn to take on the two time defending national champion on Sunday the 20th. It does not get easier as Albany, a final four team from last year arrive Easton for a game on the 25th at home at night.  A game with Drexel follows in Philadelphia on Monday at 7pm.

October is dominated by Patriot League games which will decide which 4 teams will play for the Patriot League Championship and a coveted spot in the NCAA national tournament. There will also be games at the University of Pennsylvania ( the most played game outside of Lehigh by Lafayette field hockey), Temple, and Yale. The schedule provides the team with chance to blend together and contains opponents strong enough to give Lafayette an RPI high enough to earn a national ranking. In addition, it appears many of the Patriot League teams have likewise kept their schedules equally challenging, which should enable the league as a whole to advance Each team member has been provided a training regimen so that upon their arrival coaches can concentrate on orienting the team to game schemes and team patterns. It will be a challenging year set to begin in about three weeks.

Recently, while visiting Total Hockey field hockey camp, I had an extended conversation with two of Lafayette’s veterans, Hannah Millen and Kirby Szalkowski. Entering their senior year this fall, these two roommates are determined to make the most of their last season on the Leopard’s turf. ” I suppose it’s a cliche,” said Millen, ” But this is our moment and we will try to make this a great memory for the whole team.” Millen is a history major and Szalkowski is a psychology major.

Rappolt: Are you anxious about this being your senior year?

Szalkowski: No, but we have been playing for the last 3 years and we intend to make the most of  it.

Rappolt: What game are you looking forward to?

Szalkowski: Always the next one……So right now, it’s Ball State on August 30th!! It is always one game at a time and stay focused.

Rappolt : Can you remember the obstacles you had to overcome as freshmen, and can you give any advice to your first year players?

Millen: The biggest adjustment is the speed of the game and to be open to new strategies.

Szalkowski: Yes the pace of the game is much quicker and requires faster decisions.

Millen and Szalkowskow: It’s a hinderance not come to preseason in fit condition. There is a lot to learn and adjust to, and being out of shape is just another thing to be worried about. But that gets sorted out after the first beep tests!!

Rappolt: Are you in contact with each other during the summer, and are you doing anything to integrate the new players.

Millen: Every first year player has someone assigned to her to answer questions, and for help during the summer. We also have 7-10 informal practices so everyone can get together, and begin to feel like we are one seamless  unit.

Szalkowski: That is always an objective. We want to support everyone and feel like one team, not a group of individuals. We are going to be very tight, with one single objective on game day.

Rappolt: Tell me about your experience in Spain.

Millen: It was a great time to bond and I think we played very well. Barcelona and Valencia were beautiful and the beach was great.

Szalkowski: It was great experience. I would love to go back!!

Rappolt: Did your Spanish improve?

Szalkowski and Millen: (Laugh) The effort was there. Amanda Magadan was our translator since she is fluent. But we all tried, and the local population was very helpful. Aside from the field hockey, seeing another culture and the beauty of the architecture left an impression on all of us.

Rappolt: You played one game against a men’s side, any differences???

Millen: Yes they hit the ball harder, and they were very strong.

Szalkowski: They had very accurate passing, but it was a great experience!

Rappolt: What did you get out of it the trip, overall field hockey wise?

Szalkowski: In the first game we were a little tentative but once we got our confidence, I thought we played well. That first contest we won 2-0 I think.

Millen: The other game was in our favor 6-2 as we played as a complete unit, the men’s game was 0-5 but we learned a lot. The last game was cancelled because of a thunderstorm. But I really think we came together during the trip!

Rappolt: Any last words? What will you be doing the rest of the summer?

MIllen and Szalkowski: We are looking forward to the season, when we have the whole team in camp. Millen said she will be working for her uncle, and Szalkowski will be working earning extra money for the fall. Both will continue to play hockey and remain sharp.

The selections have been made, and Amanda Magadan, Co-Captain of the Lafayette College field hockey squad, was named today to the United States under 21 team. Seventeen players were picked, and there will be five more selected from an additional test group. This the second year on the team for the junior midfielder for the Lafayette Leopards. The under 21 team will represent the United States in the under 21 Pan Am Games next spring.

Madagan has already played against Canada and the Netherlands this past year as a member of the US squad.

It is July fourth, and I note there are only 40 days left until Lafayette players will report for preseason on August the thirteenth. As I have been a long time fan of college field hockey, a new season is a time to think about future prospects and hopes for the season, it also is for me, a time to reflect upon history.  Division one college hockey has had a remarkable evolution over the past 40 years as Title IX of the civil rights act in particular, and american culture in general has had a tremendous impact. As any fan can attest, this it not the same game played by the grandmothers, and mothers of today’s players. The invention of artificial turf, the attention to fitness, and evolving athleticism has made this game  more demanding and crowd pleasing. As a result we have seen young women discover the joy of team sport. Fans today witness a game with evolving rules ,including the  elimination of the offsides, self start off a foul, and this year the ability to raise the stick above the shoulder. The use of the ariel pass in recent years is as much a change in the game as the forward pass in american football 70 years ago.

All the changes do not diminish the accomplishments of past athletes. Lafayette was a school who did not admit women until 1972, and it has been field hockey  that has distinguished itself as a premier sport for the school. I guess I can consider myself old, and I am beginning to see daughters of some our original players, who played on an irregular grass fields in front of fans you could count on one hand, now step on to an automatically watered artificial turf field averaging several hundred fans at game.  Quite rightly ,it has evolved to the point whereas the team in the 70’s was called the “lady leopards,” by the school paper, while today they are quite proudly “The Leopards.”

It wasn’t until 1990 that the first Patriot League field hockey season was inaugurated. Since that time, Lafayette field hockey has garnered an enviable record, collectively and individually. Lafayette is located in the Lehigh Valley where high school field hockey has flourished producing numerous olympic players. It is in this atmosphere that Lafayette  has established a legacy to be envied. Let’s go down the list of all time records. In career assists there is a Lafayette player in the first,second,third, eighth,and ninth spot. Emily Valeo,Meredith Hahn,Deanna DiCroce, Jennifer Stone, and Megan Monahan are the owners in that order of that record. Those same names in a different order appear in the record for  assists in a single season with Deanna holding the single game record of 6.

Kelsey Andersen is third in goals against in a career with a 1.37 average. Danielle DeHoratius in 1994, posted the all time goals against average in a season of .63 and Jackie D’Angelo is second with a .67 season average in 1990. The latter two share the record for save percentage at .91 in a season. In 1994 Lafayette set the record for fewest goals allowed at 15.

Lafayette holds the record for consecutive victories of 19 set in 2002. Offensively you will see a host of players in goals and points scored. Leopards are ranked first, second, and sixth in career points from Megan Monahan, Deanna DiCroce, and present coach Jennifer Stone. Monahan leads all patriot league players with a gaudy 80 points in a single season, Suzy Farrell is second with 70 points, DiCroce is third with 51 points, Stone is fourth with with 50, Kelly Salber is ninth, and Monahan is tenth having had two high scoring seasons in her career.

Megan Monahan is the all time goal scorer with 65 in her career with the nearest player six goals away. Farrell and Monahan share the season title with 33 and Jen Stone is third with 24,Salber is fourth with 20, DiCroce is 10th with 18 sharing that spot with Monahan who did it in her junior season as well.

There are other records but I might run out of space. Legacy means something in sports. As today’s players step on that field in August they are standing on the accomplishments of others. No doubts some of the records I named above will be broken. It would be my hope when recorded there will be Lafayette after the name.

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