Author: William Rappolt

Weariness was the word for the day as 100 of the best field hockey players in the United States played for the third straight day in the hot Pennsylvania weather. But it’s all part of the test as there will be selections to the US under 21 team following this week’s competitions.  Cody Hunsicker and Theresa Delahanty continue to impress as both started on their respective team. Delahanty was active on both sides of the field during Monday’s practice and the two days of games today and tuesday. It appeared she never left the field and had a hand on several attacking sets as well defending deep for her team. (Whites). They are currently in first place and undefeated with a commanding 6 point advantage. Today, they had a come from behind victory winning 3-2 after going down 0-2 early in the first half.

Cody’s Hunsicker’s team (Reds) is currently in second place after their come from behind win as well. Cody started at left back and  was involved in several key defensive plays as well as performing during corners yesterday, delivering two hard shots. The Reds played the Whites and lost 2-1 in a hard fought game yesterday as the two Lafayette stars played against each other. Today’s Red’s game was played outside in the heat making their come from behind victory that much more impressive.

Tomorrow, play continues for the fourth straight day and begins at 9:15 with Cody and Theresa playing one after another. Friday will begin a championship round where the match ups will depend on the record for the week.

Lafayette was well represented with respective parents in attendance while Lafayette assistant coaches showed up along with senior teammate Rosy Shanks. Rosy reports there are a number of Leopards on campus this summer and they are playing together at night.

In a short conversation with Theresa Delahanty, she stated she was learning a lot and couldn’t wait to use her new learned skills this fall. Pre-season begins on August the 8th less than 60 days away!!

Rising senior defender Cody Hunsicker has been notified she has been selected for the Women’s National Champioship at Spooky Nook this June. This  makes two Lafayette field hockey players who have been selected to this elite tournament. Cody has been a staunch defender ever since her freshman year. Mental toughness is her moniker as she is able to analyze her opponent as she closes in for a tackle or interception.

Hunsicker, a chemistry major is recognized for her leadership on the team!!

Good Luck to our two entrants.

Amanda Magadan and Katelyn Arnold walked off with the major awards for female athletes at “Pardees.”  Pardees is the final event honoring this year’s athletes and traditionally occurs right before graduation . Magadan received the coveted Charles A. Albert award for outstanding female athlete and Arnold received the class 1913 award recognizing the outstanding student athlete. Both teammates were all patriot league selectees and on the Patriot League honor roll. Both had already received honors from the Lehigh Valley Alumni Association as outstanding female athlete and student athlete. Both had been key performers all four years of their career.

Magadan was an all-american selection and was recently selected to be a member of the US Women’s field hockey team. She has already been training on weekends with the team in Spooky Nook, Pa. while finishing her requirements for graduation occurring tomorrow. Arnold will graduate with a 3.95 GPA and Magadan with a 3.31 GPA .

Both are carrying home a ton of hardware collected over their four years. Highlights for these seniors include signature wins over top 20 and top 10 teams, appearances in the Patriot League playoffs, and competitive games with eventual National and past national champions.

Academically the Field Hockey squad is finishing their year and many are preparing to make the trip back to New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Massachusetts, Canada, Scotland, and the Netherlands. It’s been an eventful year with its obvious ups and downs, but certainly with lessons learned. From what I saw this spring there is a determination to come back on August 8th, a better, stronger, more skillful, team. As I said in my last article, the last two spring contests saw a true division one team emerge. If it’s true that the whole will be even stronger than its parts, it could be an exciting fall.

August 8th will also see the addition of a new class who will have two weeks to adjust to the faster play, longer periods and skillful competition they will face. The league will be stronger with every team making an effort to up their game. Bucknell is traveling to the Netherlands this summer, American will have added an additional year to train a very strong squad from last year, Boston will reload, Lehigh has a second year with their new coach and an improving squad, Colgate is adding a new Coach, and Holy Cross has gone to Europe to strengthen their already improving squad. It will be a scramble no doubt for that championship trophy.

Several Leopards will be staying on campus and will undoubtably will be spending many evenings with veterans sharpening their skills on Rappolt Field. In addition, the Leopards will have four players who have made the USA field hockey high performance practice squads. Sophomore goalie Sarah Park, senior defender Cody Hunsicker, sophomore attacker Sam DiMaio and Junior midfielder Theresa Delahanty are all ready to compete this summer. This is the highest number to my recollection of Leopards doing High Performance. No doubt our foreign players will be returning to their club teams as well.

August 8th is already circled on my calendar. In the meantime I will try to keep you abreast of everything until then. Amanda Magadan continues on the US squad and could see action this summer at an international tournament at Spooky Nook. Katelyn Arnold has been nominated for the class of 1913 Student Athlete award and certainly Amanda Magadan will be a nominee for the female athlete of the year.

Congratulations to all our graduating seniors and best of luck. Remember you are always in our thoughts and we hope to see you at all the alumni events in the future.

After the one hundred and fortieth minute of field hockey against four teams, the Lafayette Leopards proved they are ready for the 2017 season. In the past several months of hard spring training this group became a team. In over ten years of writing about Lafayette Field Hockey, I have usually kept away from superlative adjectives and over confidence, but what we saw on this light rainy day leaves this fan very optimistic for the coming season. The passing was crisp, there was no standing around waiting for the ball, they ran and created spaces, every attack was by a plethora of Maroon and White, the defense looked coordinated and well managed, and every goal had multiple players involved.

It would be unfair to single out a player, because every team member has made strides this spring to bring it together. To my mind, this is farther than any recent Lafayette team has come, at this point in its development. This was the last time they will be competing as a team until August 17th, when after about a week or so of preseason practice, they  will meet in a preseason game  against Monmouth University at Rappolt Field. Yes, there will be months of summer away from the College, but its my belief this team is on a mission. Many will remain on campus and in its environs, so recapturing what we saw this afternoon will quickly return. The skills are there and the fall will demonstrate their heart as well.

With the exception of Carolyn Turnbull’s strike on the stroke in the third game against Fairfield  ( a fall opponent on Sept 8th at Fairfield), every goal was a team effort constructed and executed with a knowledge of the field and position of teammates.

Rosie Shanks opened the scoring with the first of two goals in the afternoon, against Quinnipiac ( a fall opponent on October twenty third at Rappolt Field). Rosie captured and controlled the ball as it was rebounding off of player sticks in front of the goal. Our other Rose, Rosa Jonckheer had a beautiful deflection later in the same game assisted by several Leopard teammates. Shanks got her second goal in the second game assisted by Ellen Coulboune, who used her speed and improved stick skills to beat opponents all afternoon. Shanks’ goal was to stand up against Columbia as the defense was to bar the home field Lions scoreless. Cody Hunsicker, Lisa van der Geest, with consistent and hard play by rising senior Meg Lillis demonstrated to me that opponent’s offensives were not going to find it easy this fall.

I was pleased to see Kristen Taylor return to the turf as she weaved through opposing defenses, and led from the midfield position setting up the attack on numerous occasions. The rising Junior looks to be a major contributor next fall. I could fill the rest of this column with names but everyone looked liked they belong on a Division one field. The challenge will be to sustain and improve upon what we saw this afternoon.

For the moment, it was a good way to end this episode of 2017 Leopard field hockey, as I put my fan emotions away for the next three months. Go Pards!!

In it’s next to last contest of the Spring season the Leopards of Lafayette will take on an experienced Drexel squad on their field at 7 pm. This will be played under game conditions with perhaps a shoot out at the end, regardless of the score. The Dragons have only lost two seniors but they were two of the three top scorers last season. Drexel  fell to National Champion Delaware in the CAA semi- final last year. Returning will be top goal scorer, sophomore, Megan Wiest who tallied 12 goals out of the 41 goals scored by Drexel last season.

Those 41 goals were on 201 shots, As in previous years, Dragon teams like to use the fast break to their advantage. Opponents scored 61 goals on 325 shots. Penalty Corners were in the favor of opponents 87 to 123 and shots per game were 10.6 vs 17.1. The Dragon sophomore goalie had a 66 percent save percentage.

First periods were crucial for Drexel as opponents outscored Drexel 33/12. Drexel will be a regular season opponent next year traveling to Rappolt Field on Sunday September 10.  This will be Drexel’s second spring contest having won their section last week at Delaware, playing Monmouth, LaSalle and division 2 Millersville.

The Leopards will travel to New York City on Saturday for an all day play day at Columbia University.

Head Coach Jennifer Stone has just returned from Ireland where she coached the Under 17 US Squad to three victories.

Addendum:   The Leopards got off to 1-0 lead in the first half off of a Liza Welch goal ( first of her career).  The half was perhaps the best hockey of the spring season for the Leopards. Unfortunately the second half resulted in 2 goals for Drexel. Next up Quinnipiac, Columbia, Albany and Fairfield in New York City as Lafayette ends its spring season.