Tag: Patriot League

American University will return a plethora of talent while losing four graduating seniors,  all league Natalie Konerth, Natalie Marsh, Jess Davis and Grace Parke. However, the League will see more of all leaguers  Junior Rafaela Rubas, Senior Angela Virtu, Senior Leah DiGiandomenico, and Junior Rachel Stefano.

Last year’s conference statistics are imposing. The eagles got off an impressive 127 shots in Patriot League contests ( 21 shots per game) and earned 50 penalty corners. Looking more closely 33 of those shots came against Colgate, while Boston was able to hold them to only 9 shots during their regular season meeting. The four graduating seniors accounted for 34 of those shots and 5 returning underclassmen DiGiandomenico, Rachel Stefano, Haley Bowcutt, Kathryn Roncorni,and Rafaela Rubas accounted for 61 shots in conference regular season games. Goaltending seems to be in solid hands with starter  Mara Jacobs between the pipes returning.

It’s hard to imagine any of the four Eagle freshman having an impact or getting significant minutes with this returning lineup. Last year the Leopards took the Eagles to two overtimes losing 2-1 at Rappolt Field. This year’s game will be in Washington Saturday on  October 21st at noon.

Steve Jennings, is in his 19th season at American and the Eagles look very tough this year. Their out of conference schedule looks a little light compared to previous years. Maryland is missing and by my count they will be playing only 4 NCAA tournament teams this year. The Patriot League will be a little tougher with plenty of competition for the four coveted tournament berths at stake during the regular season.  American is playing only 6 home games this year, one of them of course is Lafayette, along with other league rivals Bucknell and Holy Cross.

Next up in coming days, in alphabetical order, Boston University.

In a little more than a month, the 2017 edition of Lafayette Field Hockey will arrive on College Hill to begin preparation for the fall season. No doubt team members, seniors right down to first year players have already begun their off season regime. Within nine days  of reporting on August 8, the team will welcome Monmouth on the 17th at 6 pm on Rappolt Field for the first preseason scrimmage. In the intervening 9 days, there will be the task of getting timing down, adjusting to new positions, and no time for tired muscles, cardio deficits, or pre-season injury due to an unprepared body. First year players will have to get used to the faster play and the longer games that characterize college field hockey. Those who are not ready will be behind, and hurting their team’s chances to be successful.

For returning players, it will be a continuation of the spring season, and there will be no room to take time off for conditioning while learning new offensive schemes. The team will have to make adjustments, as last years senior class  has moved on. Who will be the new leaders? College hockey always sees a rising rotation of new players, who will need to step up and form the core the new team.

In coming days,  I am going to preview each league team, documenting the changes coming to league and its participants. My initial observation is that the league is becoming more competitive. There is a new coach at Colgate who will be bringing in not only a new system, and attitude, but 13 new players. Lehigh’s second year coach looks to continue its improvement while Holy Cross has reached across the Atlantic to improve  their roster. American returns a veteran team, and Boston University has brought in experienced first year players from across the Pacific to bolster their roster. Bucknell is always tough as they look to return to the playoffs. Meanwhile Lafayette is not standing still as they have added six new players and maybe a seventh in their search for a return to the playoffs and their first championship since 2012. But more about that later this month.

Cameron looks for teammates against JMU

Cam Costello shows her defensive skills against Boston last year

Rachael Bird shows her form, skill and strength delivering the ball upfield

At the top of the page are the statistics for all the league teams against each other. This gives a good relative picture of where each stood at the end of the regular season. I will  leave it to you readers to evaluate the relative strengths but there are things that I can point out right away. Lafayette clearly needs to take more shots, get more corners and in general get into a position to score more goals than last year. On the other hand, the Leopards will be inserting a new goalie, but that was what the spring was for. Her back up will be a freshman. No doubt there will be players moving forward to replace others lost last year, but there is a plethora of talent waiting for the opportunity.

But more of that later this month. In the meantime take a look at those stats and begin to think about how the Leopard’s needs can be filled in the coming season. The talent, speed and athleticism is there. I will try to narrow down the strengths, weaknesses and  evaluate the incoming freshman for each team in the coming weeks.

Go Pards!!

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!!