1. Kingston Wyoming Seminary (Pa.) — 12-0

Beat Voorhees Eastern (N.J.) 2-1; defense (two goals in the last seven matches) has been playing well recently

2. Emmaus (Pa.) — 11-0

Has outscored opposition 74-1 this season

3. Louisville Sacred Heart (Ky.) — 17-0

In two tournaments the last two weekends, the Valkyries had nine wins and nine shutouts

4. San Diego Scripps Ranch (Calif.) — 8-0

Shutout of La Costa Canyon led to winning efforts in Serra Tournament bracket play on Saturday

5. Millersville Penn Manor (Pa.) — 10-0

Two more shutout wins this past week

6. Summit Oak Knoll (N.J.) — 8-0

Union County Tournament begins this weekend

7. Wilmington Tower Hill (Del.) — 6-0

Team has yielded only one goal this season

8. Mountain Top Crestwood (Pa.) — 9-0

Could Comets challenge Sem before it’s all done?

9. Lakeville Hotchkiss School (Conn.) — 3-0

Survived 3-2 win over Greenwich (Conn.) Academy last Saturday

10. St. Louis Ursuline (Mo.) — 10-0-1

Edged St. Louis Lafayette (Mo.) 2-1 early last week

11. Indiana University of Pennsylvania — 9-0

Hosts Slippery Rock this Saturday night before closing out 6 of 7 on the road

And bear in mind: Escondido San Pasqual (Calif.) 6-1, Lake Forest (Ill.) 11-3, Severna Park (Md.) 7-0, Walpole (Mass.) 8-0, St. Louis Lafayette (Mo.) 12-2-1, Voorhees Eastern (N.J.) 5-2, Medford Lakes Shawnee (N.J.) 5-1, Sewell Washington Township (N.J.) 6-0, Garden City (N.Y.) 8-0, Worthington Thomas Worthington (Ohio) 11-0-1, York Springs Bermudian Springs (Pa.) 11-0, Factoryville Lackawanna Trail (Pa.) 10-1, Lehighton (Pa.) 10-1, Fairview Village Methacton (Pa.) 12-1, Langhorne Neshaminy (Pa.) 11-0, Selinsgrove (Pa.) 10-0, Norfolk Maury (Va.) 9-0, Suffolk Lakeland (Va.) 9-2

Today’s Game of the Day
Marlton Cherokee (N.J.) at Medford Lakes Shawnee (N.J.), 3:45 p.m.
This is the first game of the four-way rivalry between the schools of the Lenape School District to be played on artificial turf, as the Renegades’ home ground was dedicated last week. Shawnee comes off a 4-0 win over Runnemede Triton Regional (N.J.), and Cherokee comes of a 3-0 loss to Sewell Washington Township (N.J.)

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Despite the national importance of Saturday night’s Wyoming Seminary-Eastern match, there were some awfully good games played elsewhere in the United States over the weekend.

Let’s start with the Serra Invitational in San Diego, where San Diego Scripps Ranch, No. 4 in the TopOfTheCircle.com Top 10, won the tournament with a 3-1 win over San Diego Serra (Calif.). Serra had a dream start, scoring in the first 50 seconds of the final, but Scripps Ranch, playing its second match of the day, pumped in a pair of corners in the second half to secure the result.

In the Husky Invitational in Oak Park, Ill., Louisville Sacred Heart (Ky.) was amazing against another multi-state field of teams including defending Illinois champion Winnetka New Trier (Ill.), Federation state record title-holder Ann Arbor Pioneer (Mich.), and the host school. The Valkyries won all five of their games by shutout, going one better by its four-shutout performance at the Sun Devil Invitational last weekend in Virginia Beach.

In addition, there was a supremely good game between Lakeville Hotchkiss School (Conn.) and Greenwich (Conn.) Academy. Hotchkiss took a 2-0 lead inside 20 minutes, but the Gators pulled one back three minutes from the interval.

The Bearcats, the six-time defending WNEPSAA champions, took a 3-1 lead in the 47th minute, but, with the home weekend crowd behind them, the hosts continued the pressure until Cami Viola got GA back to within 3-2 in the 58th minute. The pressure continued right until the end, when a final shot just missed the cage.

You get the feeling that, if these two teams meet up again in the WNEPSAA postseason tournament, it’ll be another classic.

KINGSTON, Pa. – Talk before yesterday’s interstate showdown between Voorhees Eastern (N.J.) and Kingston Wyoming Seminary (Pa.) was about whether JaJa Kentwell, a native of China, would be playing in the contest for the Blue Knights. He didn’t, but everybody forgot about the other foreign player on the Wyoming Seminary roster.

Henni Teitze, an 11th-grader from St. Augustin, Germany and a product of the two-time defending German club champion Bayer Leverkusen, rapped in an option-left corner with under 10 minutes left to play to give Sem a 2-1 win over Eastern in an absolute defensive thriller.

“When the ball came over,” Teitze said, “I saw there was nobody around me, so I hit the ball and saw the ball go in. It was really exciting.”

“Henni played really well, perhaps the best we’ve seen her play this year,” said Wyoming Seminary head coach Karen Klassner. “She rose to the occasion for us. Now, we’ve had a lot of international students here, but they haven’t been good field hockey players. But she’s the first one, and she loves this game. She plays a different style of game; she makes us nervous because she plays a very aggressive kind of game, and, as a back, she’ll come forward. Now tonight, we had the midfield and her working together well, but that hasn’t always been the case.”

“They were trying to pull us out a little bit (on corners), and I’d rather cover the low people than the high people,” said Eastern head coach Danyle Heilig. “But that came back to haunt us.”

Like last year’s match, Eastern took an early lead. Gabby Kozlowski made the most of a sliver of open space in the circle thanks to a pass that teammate Janine Kovach placed on a silver auger in the third minute.

A few minutes later, Sem responded on a breathtaking, weaving run by Devon Gagliardi, whose pass into the circle was tipped in by freshman forward Kristian Stefanides.

But the stars of this game were the two defensive units. Wyoming Seminary’s Tietze, Jessica Swoboda, and Katrina Dominado, along with corner flyer Kelsey Kolojejchick, were outstanding in front of goalkeeper Sierra Seagar (seven saves). But Kolojejchick and Segear showed immense personal courage, playing past the point where many of today’s teenagers might quit.  Kolojejchick wore a cast because of a broken hand, and a plastic face mask because of an injury suffered in practice the day before.

“I was getting frustrated during this game,” said the North Carolina-bound Kolojejchick. “But the coaching staff got me focused and got my head back in the game. And I really appreciate them for doing that.”

Segear was in visible pain during timeouts, but held off Eastern for more than 57 minutes after yielding the opener.

“We’ve learned our lessons after last year, when Kat Sharkey, our leading scorer, got sick right after this game, and we never really were able to make the adjustments,” Klassner said. “When you take Jaja, our starting center midfielder, out of the equation, and have to move people into new places, it makes a difference; we had to put a freshman where we usually had a senior. We’re going into the meat of our season, and Kelsey is going to go (to Mexico City for the Junior Pan Ams) with the U-21s. We’re making major adjustments in the middle of our season, but the kids are rising to the occasion.”

Eastern’s defense of Melanie Dawson, Jackie Beasley, and Carlie Rouh were equally impressive in front of Viking goalkeeper Alana Barry (six saves).

“We needed to take their passing lanes away, and we needed to step up and deny (Kolojejchick and Gagliardi) the ball, and we did that more consistently,” Heilig said. “They are obviously two of the most dynamic players we’ve seen and we’ll ever see.”

“What Eastern was doing was overloading to one side, and we knew that they were doing that, and we wanted to switch fields,” Klassner said. “When we did that, we were successful. What they also did well was hunt in pairs, they picked off our passes; they were really well-coached.”

Eastern threw everything forward in the last 10 minutes, but could not send the ball over the line.

“You couldn’t ask for a better 60 minutes of hockey,” Heilig said. “Everyone didn’t pay an entrance fee (to Klassner Field), but they should have, because that was a great game.”

“What Danyle and I wanted was a big game, one for the crowd,” Klassner said. “This is the kind of game that perpetuates field hockey.”

Eastern 1-0–1
Wyoming Seminary 1-1–2
E: Kozlowski (Kovach), fg, 3rd
WS: Stefanides (Gagliardi), fg, 11th
WS: Tietze (Gagliardi, Kolojejchick), pc, 51st
Shots: E: 8, WS: 8; Saves: E: Barry 6; WS: Siegar 7.

Today’s Game of the Day
Voorhees Eastern (N.J.) at Kingston Wyoming Seminary (Pa.), 7 p.m.
One year ago,  Wyoming Seminary traveled to McAleer Stadium and won a 3-2 double-overtime thriller.

This year, in the reverse match, Wyoming Seminary is once again the top-ranked team in the land. It’s not only because of an undefeated record, but because of returning talent such as Kelsey Kolojejchick and Devon Gagliardi. The team has also developed a number of good players in recent years who are filling starting slots.

But Eastern is going to face something it has never done before: a team with a boy on the roster. But it’s not any boy: JaJa Kentwell is the son of two internationally-rated field hockey umpires and has been around the game all his life. Kentwell has also developed to the point in which he could very well be a hopeful for the U.S. men’s national team in the near future.

Now, the Knights could very well be an excellent, if not top-ranked, field hockey team even without Kentwell, which they won’t be tonight out of respect for New Jersey’s ban on boys playing field hockey on girls’ teams.

However, because of the addition of teams in the Philadelphia suburbs this past offseason in the PIAA, the proportional formula for Class AA has changed. The upshot is that District 2 will get only one berth to the state tournament, despite having as many as four teams capable of winning the AA championship this year.  This means that the competition in the Wyoming Valley Conference is even keener than ever, and Kentwell will be getting all sorts of minutes in the postseason.

As for Eastern, the team which was so bulletproof for the past nine seasons lost an early match to Sewell Washington Township (N.J.) and is ranked fourth in the state of New Jersey by Dorf Features Service.

The Vikings, however, can field a quality side, with Kelsey Mitchell, Geena Lesiak, Corrine Allen, Mariel Papa, and Gabby Kozlowski all capable of scoring.

Now, on paper, Wyoming Seminary should win this game. But the TopOfTheCircle.com First Law of Field Hockey says that game are played on the field, not on paper. Also, the last time this blog made this kind of observation, Eastern won the match.

Suffice it to say, get to Klassner Field early; parking in the neighborhood will be a bit scarce, given the fact that Wyoming Seminary is installing a new president this weekend.

And because Klassner field is turf, nothing short of a cyclone will prevent the game from being played. And, given last year’s agreement to play overtime and go to strokes if necessary to determine a winner, this should be an absolutely majestic game.

Today’s Game of the Day
Columbus Bishop Watterson (Ohio) at Gahanna Columbus Academy (Ohio), 5 p.m. 
With all due respect to defending state champion Worthington Thomas Worthington (Ohio), these two teams are usually the ones in the hunt for the state championship in Ohio.

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Over the weekend, thanks to a sweep of her games at the Herndon Invitational, Diane Miller of Burke Lake Braddock (Va.) is now the 37th known member of scholastic field hockey’s 400-win club.

Miller came to Lake Braddock in 1991, and thanks to a cadre of great athletes who play lacrosse and soccer in the spring, has turned her purple-clad Bruins into a veritable powerhouse in northern Virginia. Braddock is a constant threat to win not only its district and regional championships, but the Virginia High School League state title.

But a state championship is the only thing missing from Miller’s resume. The Bruins have been agonizingly close on several occasions, including back-to-back runner-up finishes in 1997 and 1998. And the last time Braddock was in the final was in 2002, The Season That Would Never End.

You see, the entire VHSL calendar was postponed a week to allow teams in northern and central Virginia to make up games postponed because of a series of sniper shootings that paralyzed life in the D.C. metropolitan area.

Then, the state championship final between Midlothian James River (Va.) and Lake Braddock was postponed for three days because a rainstorm rendered the pitch at Oakton (Va.) unusable for three days.

The gripping game went into overtime, and James River won it.

Since then, things have not gone all that well for the Bruins. Miller’s long-time assistant coach died a few years ago, and Braddock has not figured into the chase for the Northern Virginia regional championship. It has been strange not seeing those purple jerseys with an interlocked “LB” logo on them and their rabid fans in the bleachers.

But this year could see a revival of their fortunes. Lake Braddock is 13-0 in its District, tournament, and non-conference games, and it will be very interesting how they parlay their early strength and momentum.

Today’s Game of the Day
Oak Park-River Forest (Ill.) at Lake Forest (Ill.), 5 p.m.
The Scouts and Huskies always give a good show, although both teams have been overshadowed the past year by Winnetka New Trier (Ill.). All three teams went down to St. Louis for the Gateway Classic and none of the three came back unscathed; OPRF lost to St. Louis Mary Institute-Country Day School (Mo,), Lake Forest lost to St. Louis Cor Jesu (Mo.), and New Trier lost to St. Louis Lafayette (Mo.). This game therefore gives one of these two teams a needed leg up.

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Every Tuesday from now until the week of Thanksgiving, we expect to have the weekly quick-and-dirty Top 10 published on this blog. The records and information are as current as we can get them through the preceding Sunday, so if there was an upset result last night, it won’t be reflected here.

Our RightToRightIsRight.com No. 11 Team of the Week is Syracuse University, a team which has bought into to head coach Ange Bradley’s beliefs and system of play and has been playing extraordinary hockey — the peak of which was two weeks ago when she beat mentor Missy Meharg’s University of Maryland team.

1. Kingston Wyoming Seminary (Pa.) — 8-0

Huge match at Klassner Field this Saturday night against Voorhees Eastern (N.J.)

2. Emmaus (Pa.) — 8-0

Has conceded exactly one goal this season

3. Louisville Sacred Heart (Ky.) — 11-0

They have the scoring, they have the short passing game, they have the sense of occasion, and the nation’s longest current winning streak. Big upcoming weekend in Husky Invitational at Oak Park-River Forest (Ill.).

4. San Diego Scripps Ranch (Calif.) — 4-0

Team was extremely strong in Serra Tournament pool play last weekend

5. Millersville Penn Manor (Pa.) — 8-0

Sent a loud and clear message with 6-0 win last week over Lititz Warwick (Pa.)

6. Summit Oak Knoll (N.J.) — 5-0

After an opening defeat of Medford Lakes Shawnee (N.J.), sets sight this Saturday against Flemington Hunterdon Central (N.J.)

7. Wilmington Tower Hill (Del.) — 4-0

Hillers methodically moving through schedule

8. Mountain Top Crestwood (Pa.) — 7-0

Had massive win over Hummelstown Lower Dauphin (Pa.) in HersheyPark Classic

9. Lakeville Hotchkiss School (Conn.) — 1-0

Derby match with Greenwich (Conn.) Academy on Saturday

10. St. Louis Ursuline (Mo.) — 8-0-1

Has been extremely tough this season in MWAA play

11. Syracuse University — 8-0

Best start in school history for third-ranked Orange women

And bear in mind: Escondido San Pasqual (Calif.) 2-0, San Diego Torrey Pines (Calif.) 5-1, Lake Forest (Ill.) 8-2, Winnetka New Trier (Ill.) 7-1, Severna Park (Md.) 4-0, Walpole (Mass.) 7-0, St. Louis Lafayette (Mo.) 8-1, Voorhees Eastern (N.J.) 3-1, Medford Lakes Shawnee (N.J.) 4-1, Sewell Washington Township (N.J.) 3-0, Garden City (N.Y.) 5-0, Olentangy Liberty (Ohio) 5-1, York Springs Bermudian Springs (Pa.) 8-0, Factoryville Lackawanna Trail (Pa.) 8-1, Lehighton (Pa.) 9-1, Langhorne Neshaminy (Pa.) 9-0, Selinsgrove (Pa.) 8-0, Virginia Beach Frank W. Cox (Va.) 7-0, Virginia Beach Princess Anne (Va.) 4-1

Today’s Game of the Day
Greenfield (Mass.) at Hatfield Smith Academy (Mass.), 3:30 p.m.
One way or the other, one of these two Western Massachusetts stalwarts always seem to wind up in the state semifinal round. They have also placed players on the senior women’s national team such as Kelly Doton, Tara Jelley, and Kelly Dostal.

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You may remember, when I started this blog, my pledging not to try to pack too much information in a single day’s entry because it wasn’t possible to predict whether there is a bloggable event the next day.

But while in Virginia Beach, enough happened so that we’re going to make an exception.

First, let’s look at the other major tournament of the weekend, the Falcon Georgi Classic, which moved its varsity tournament from the campus at Hummelstown Lower Dauphin (Pa.) up the road to HersheyPark Stadium, a turf field on the grounds of an amusement park.

In the final, Lehighton (Pa.) met up with host Lower Dauphin in a game featuring a pair of former national-team members — Shawn Hindy for Lehighton, Linda Kreiser for the Falcons. And as good as last year’s overtime game was, this year’s was even closer. The teams drew 1-1, then Lehighton won 3-2 in penalty strokes. To me, this game was a big, big boost of confidence for the 9-1 Indians. They still have a difficult schedule ahead of them, including a game in three weeks against Selinsgrove (Pa.).

Also, there were a few upsets this past weekend. On Friday, Summit (N.J.) defeated defending Group II champion North Caldwell West Essex (N.J.) 2-1, and Sewell Washington Township (N.J.) defeated Voorhees Eastern (N.J.) 3-2 for the first time in 25 years.

Given the fact that West Essex and Eastern have been the dominant forces in New Jersey field hockey for most of the last 20 years, you wonder when was the last time both teams lost a game on the same day — until you remember that both lost in the Tournament of Champions semifinals doubleheader only 10 months ago. Give credit to Summit head coach Jen Schwartzenbeck and Washington Township head coach Jeannine O’Connor, who got their teams to believe they could win.

Thing is, both teams have to gear up and do it again later this season; the reverse match between West Essex and Summit is Oct. 22, and the rematch between Eastern and Washington Township is Oct. 16.

There were other major results in New England over the weekend. Thorndike Mount View (Maine) defeated Winslow in the final two minutes after being badly outshot and outcornered throughout. But can the game be called a true upset? Mount View, coached by Gloria Clark, has also beaten Readfield Maranacook Community (Maine) and Waterville (Maine) this season.

Also, in New Hampshire, Derryfield (N.H.), the defending M-S state champion, was dealing with some doubt after losing its first home game in two seasons a week ago, but a Friday 1-1 draw with 2002-03 M-S champion Tilton Winnisquam (N.H.) showed that the competition was indeed catching up.

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. – Sometimes when a team wins a tournament, whether it’s a county tournament, an invitational, or a postseason tournament, the winning team often dwells at the site, posing for group photos with a trophy, and lingering at the site of play, wishing that the experience wouldn’t come to an end.

But when Louisville Sacred Heart (Ky.) won the championship game of the Sun Devil Invitational with a 3-0 win over Suffolk Lakeland (Va.), the team sprinted out of the National Training Center following the postgame handshakes, trophy ceremony, and the obligatory group photo. The reason? Smoothies.

“Whatever it takes,” quipped Sacred Heart head coach Liz Lewis of her pre-game bribe.

Kind of reminds you that, as good as Sacred Heart and its players are, they’re still teenagers. It’s just that the Valkyries are not only good at what they do in terms of being able to win games and score goals, they also know when to score.

Nine of Sacred Heart Academy’s 12 goals in this tournament were scored either in the first five minutes or the last five minutes of each half. In the final against Lakeland, Jessica Lindner’s first-half corner game in the first five minutes of the game, while Kristen Henn’s corner blast on a 1-Up came just before the interval.

And in the tournament semifinal, Olivia Miller’s 1-Up corner goal with about three minutes left provided a 1-0 victory over the tough defense of Fairfax W.T. Woodson (Va.).

“You get to a point when you focus too much on executing your penalty corners, and it gets inside your head sometimes,” Lewis said. “We’re pretty adept at getting corners, and sooner or later one of them is going in.”

Sacred Heart had too many weapons over the course of the tournament. Team speed, an intricate short passing game and the willingness to use it. Lakeland was more than a formidable opponent in the final, but the Henn goal was a big psychological blow.

Still, the Cavaliers did something that no other team did in the course of the tournament in the second half. They generated four corners and forced goalkeeper Haley Fusting to make more than one save. Lakeland sophomore attacking midfielder Kelsey Smither was brilliant throughout the tournament, and goalkeeper Mallory Draeger was outstanding.

But Sacred Heart was a skilled and deep team, and it showed throughout the tournament. Four clean sheets, only three shots on goal against, and only five penalty corners conceded.

“We came here wanting to see how we stacked up against Virginia and North Carolina teams,” Lewis said. “We were very pleased with the level of play, and we got what we wanted — not necessarily the championship, but a chance to play against very skilled and well-coached teams.”

And this coming weekend, the road trip for Sacred Heart continues as the team travels to Oak Park-River Forest (Ill.) for the Husky Invitational.

“I know there’s a lot of hype about our winning streak, but that’s not in our minds,” Lewis said. “From Day One, all of this is preparation for our state tournament.”

Sacred Heart 3-0–3
Lakeland 0-0–0
SH: Jessica Lindner, pc, 5th
SH: Christina Amorose (Lindner), fg, 9th
SH: Kristen Henn (Courtney Kuiper), pc, 22nd
Shots: SH: 11; L: 2. Saves: SH: Haley Fusting 2, Sara Auschbacher 0; L: Mallory Draeger 8.

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Other scores
Pool play
Louisville Sacred Heart (Ky.) 2, Virginia Beach Tallwood (Va.) 0
Fairfax W.T. Woodson (Va.) 4, Salem (Va.) 0
Suffolk Lakeland (Va.) 2, Virginia Beach Floyd Kellam (Va.) 0
Virginia Beach First Colonial (Va.) 2, East Chapel Hill (N.C.) 1
9-12 bracket
SEMI: Virginia Beach Tallwood (Va.) 1, Norfolk Granby (Va.) 0
SEMI: Norfolk (Va.) Collegiate 8, Virginia Beach Green Run (Va.) 1
CONS: Norfolk Granby (Va.) 3, Virginia Beach Green Run (Va.) 0
CHMP: Virginia Beach Tallwood (Va.) 3, Norfolk (Va.) Collegiate 0
5-8 bracket
SEMI: Salem (Va.) 1, Virginia Beach Kempsville (Va.) 0
SEMI: Virginia Beach Floyd Kellam (Va.) 1, East Chapel Hill (N.C.) 0
CONS: East Chapel Hill (N.C.) 1, Virginia Beach Kempsville (Va.) 0
CHMP: Virginia Beach Floyd Kellam (Va.) 3, Salem (Va.) 0
1-4 bracket
SEMI: Louisville Sacred Heart (Ky.) 1, Fairfax W.T. Woodson (Va.) 0
SEMI: Suffolk Lakeland (Va.) 4, Virginia Beach First Colonial (Va.) 0
CONS: Fairfax W.T. Woodson (Va.) 4, Virginia Beach First Colonial (Va.) 1
CHMP: Louisville Sacred Heart (Ky.) 3, Suffolk Lakeland (Va.) 0