Lafayette College Field Hockey

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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Fresh off her experiences with the Lafayette team in Spain, junior Amanda Magadan continued her intensive field hockey play by being invited to the Young Women’s National Championship, at the US training center at Spooky Nook in Lancaster,Pa. This is part of the selection process for the US teams for the coming year and beyond. Amanda has already played one year on the US under 21 team and she is hoping to continue on with the team and play in the Junior Pan Am games in the spring of 2016.

All of the selectees were randomly assigned to one of eight teams. For the most part, these groups of strangers needed to figure out how to find success in game play over the course of the one week tournament. Amanda’s team USA Gold was assigned two coaches, Jarred Martin ( associate coach at Duke University) and Grant Fulton ( asst. coach at the University of North Carolina). Both coaches have extensive international experience and the team was led by the coaches who were, “hilarious, smart, and helpful,” according to Magadan.  She continued,” Our team, USA Gold really grew over the week. We improved each game and really bonded.” The chemistry seems to have been there as they were undefeated in pool play during the week.

The team learned to win going away and won the close games as they recorded goals of 4-1 in the first game, 1-0 in the second game and 2-1 in the third game. Amanda was active in the games as she recorded 1 goal and 1 assist. Many of the team’s goals were the result of their attack penalty corners. Their team managed to go to the championship but lost 2-4. Demonstrating her completive spirit Amanda added,” Although the week would have been a little sweeter ending with a win , our team had lots of fun on and off the field and I genuinely enjoyed my coaches and teammates.

But the object of the tournament was to select players for the under 21 team and Amanda was again selected to Junior National Camp this tuesday June 30 through Friday July 3. It is there where the final selections will be made. Individually, Amanda has seen great strides in her play and hockey intelligence from being a part of the process, which she is grateful for. She will work hard and is aiming to get better. Ultimately all this work is preparing her for the season at Lafayette. She is looking forward to being with her fellow Leopards soon to begin final preparations for a successful fall in a maroon and white uniform.

This fan can’t wait for preseason as the whole team returns in August.

Professor Henry Higgins would have to change his little ditty for Eliza Doolittle if he was with our Lafayette leopards today at the shore city of Valencia. Try as they might, the game with the Valencia hockey club had to be cancelled because of thunderstorms. They tried to wait it out, but it was not going to clear up, so the two teams decided to have dinner together anyway, and as the above picture demonstrates new friends were easily acquired. The dinner became a last night celebration and the Valencia Hockey Club could not have made better dinner companions!

Soon the team will trek back to Madrid to catch their plane to JFK and the Lehigh Valley. By all accounts, the trip was a great success not only for their play on the field, but also the bonding experience they had during their adventures in three outstanding Spanish cities. They got a chance to play against good european competition, watch the very best play in the World games while in Valencia, and experience a new culture. They were able to visit and see interesting venues, learned to cook with a Spanish flare, and had time to get some Mediterranean sun in the process.

l can’t wait to see their new skills on the field as they apply their experiences in Spain to their NCAA division one opponents.  I will be following all the action. It will include the opening of preseason camp in 60 days as well as an assessment of all the Patriot League teams. If there is any news, be sure to check here for updates. As for now, welcome back and well done ladies!!

The Lafayette field hockey team encountered an unexpected challenge tonight as they arrived at the ATCH stadium in a suburb of Barcelona. Unfortunately the Leopard’s opponent, one of Spain’s top women’s club team, wasn’t able to field a team, but the club’s under 18 men’s team volunteered to fill in. Discounting the 0-5 score to Lafayette’s disadvantage, Coach Jennifer Stone was delighted at the opportunity. ” We took awhile to adjust, but the second half was very good and we were SO improved by the end of the game”, Stone said. Stone also singled out the work of goalie Katlyn Arnold who had 6 saves. In addition, there was special mention for her as the two teams practiced shoot outs at the end of the game. ” This was a great experience for the team and can only help our development,” Stone added.

The team’s tour continues tomorrow as our “Pards” move on to Valencia where they will become spectators as well as players. They will be attending World League games where team USA will be matched up with South Africa. After that our Leopards will play a local club team in the third match of the tour. Finally they will end the day watching another World League match between Spain and Canada.

The weather has been spectacular and Spanish people and field hockey players have been extremely friendly, as our team absorbed all there is available of Spanish culture and sport. A special shout out to Dave Blasic the Lafayette administrator accompanying the team, who provided the featured picture at the top of the page.

After an exciting and activity filled day on wednesday, our team gets some deserved rest and recreation, with what seems to be their favorite chill out destination …the beach. No doubt the rest was well earned, but our high energy cohort won’t let the grass grow beneath their feet. The sunny 80 degree weather joined with a bit of humidity  adds to the draw. But it won’t be lying around after lunch, as they will receive paddle surf lessons, after which they will tackle the warm Mediterranean surf. After some sun and fun, they will again have a chance to sample more Spanish cuisine with an atypical 6 pm dinner. Perhaps they will be thinking about tomorrow’s time to explore more of Barcelona on their own, and their next game with the Valles hockey club.

They will be reinforced tomorrow with two of their teammates, who will join them this weekend, while taking a break from their studies in Europe. I am sure they are emailing their friends and parents at home as well!!! I hope they are aware that the president of Lafayette College, Alison Byerly, sent her greetings to all after the game last night. As Lafayette’s first ex field hockey player president can attest, its hard to stay away from the game.

The Leopards arrived in force in Barcelona after traveling on the 8th via  a long flight from JFK to Madrid. Jet lag was put aside as they met their tour manager Christian, in Madrid.They then grabbed some lunch, and drove to Barcleona where they finally arrived at their hotel. At five o’clock our intrepid team grabbed transportation to dinner. Christian, their loyal tour guide who plays in the Danish men’s field hockey league, made sure the team got to the restaurant on time. He set up a private dinner at a local restaurant, where the owner opened on his off night, exclusively for our crew. Present also were Jim and Tina Gula ( parents of Kelsey Gula’13), and the Furneaux’s. Jim Gula was kind enough to relay all the details. The owner served a multi-course taste of tapas, and Jim reported it was very well presented and tasty. After the dinner the owner played american hit music and the girls, the Gulas, the Furneauxs, Coach Jennifer Stone , assistant Coach Emily Janis, trainer Jon Edward, as well as Lafayette athletic business manager Dave Blasic hit the dance floor until everyone decided it was time to get some sleep. Today they are scheduled for a two hour tour of the Sagrada Familia before  changing this afternoon to start the hockey portion of the trip. At 6 pm they will have a light clinic with a Spanish coach before their 8pm match with ATHC after which there will be a tailgate with their opponents. Check back later at this site for the outcome and details of the match. Some additional news, today the Leopards also visited an institution that cares for special needs adults, and they played hockey with them to the delight of all.

Lafayette gets off to a good start with a 2-0 win tonight. Katie Birle opened the scoring in the second quarter by beating two defenders  to give the Leopards a 1-0 lead at the end of the half. In the third quarter Amy Turner added to the lead with an alert rebound of a shot. Ellen Colbourne was a threat especially in the second half and Amanda Magadan challenged the Spaniards defense all game. Hannah Millen was a wall at defense. In the opinion of the Gula’s who have not seen the team until tonight Katelyn Arnold was the star of the game with numerous acrobatic saves!! A great team effort!! Here below you will find a video of the venue and some excerpts from the game

And here is some video of the actual game with a nice shot by Amy Turner provided by the Gulas