Archive for June, 2010
June 30, 2010 — Field hockey helping its own
I read Steve Locke’s blog entry this morning.
About halfway down, reference is made to the tragedy that befell the Supica family on their way to the National Futures Tournament.
What happened next, however, is an absolute gem of an act.
Don Warner, the head coach of Richmond St. Catherine’s (Va.), and a member of the U.S. men’s player pool during the 1980s, helped to organize an effort to help out the Supica family. They provided meals and transportation for bereaved family members flying into Richmond, aided in gathering personal effects, and provided general support.
Let me also echo what Steve’s blog also says about this weekend’s memorial service in Ann Arbor. It will be held at Knox Presbyterian Church on Saturday. The family has asked that, in lieu of flowers, that donations be made to:
Supica Family Benefit Trust
c/o TCF Bank
1900 Pauline Blvd
Ann Arbor, MI 48106
This family is going to need medical care and a lot of healing. I ask you to open your hearts and do what you can.
June 29, 2010 — Some comings and goings
Last Saturday night, the preliminary player pool for the U.S. senior women’s national field hockey team was unveiled.
The pool of 36 players (24, plus 12 developmental athletes) will be competing chiefly to make next year’s Pan-American Games team. The tournament will be held next year in Guadalajara, Mexico, and the scenario is a familiar one: either beat Argentina in the final to guarantee a spot in London 2012, or fall into a last-chance qualification tournament.
The United States pool of players will include Tiffany (Snow) Huisman, whose attacking abilities were surely missed at the San Diego World Cup qualifier last April.
A couple of newer players that bear watching are Paige Selenski, the stick-wizard from the University of Virginia, and Shannon Taylor, the Syracuse graduate.
It is interesting to note that the only high-schooler in the high-performance pool is on the developmental squad. Laura Gebhart is a rising senior at Mount Joy Donegal (Pa.).
Overall, however, the team likely to come out of this pool is going to feature some very energetic players such as Katie O’Donnell, Katie Reinprecht, Katelyn Falgowski, Michelle Vittese, Katie Evans, and Jesse Gey.
They will blend well with the veteran core: Huisman, Amy Tran, Caroline Nichols, Claire Laubach, and Carrie Lingo.
An interesting addition to the developmental pool is Sarah Dalrymple of Temple University. She came to Temple as a projected defensive midfielder, but has developed into a fine goalkeeper, one whose career should be watched with great interest.
June 28, 2010 — An NCAA opportunity?
It was announced late last week that the 2011 and 2012 NCAA Division I field hockey championship will be in Norfolk, Va. at the Powhatan hockey-specific stadium on the campus of Old Dominion University.
While we don’t know the exact plans of the three NCAA Tournament committees, the plan should be obvious if you’ve been around the site a while.
I believe, if the powers-that-be in NCAA field hockey would put aside their own interests and make arrangements for a three-division extravaganza at Powhatan and the National Training Center, it would advance the sport.
Think of it: three Final Fours and the NFHCA all-star games, all on water-based turf at two sites.
It can be done.
June 27, 2010 — Futures U-19 final: Lancaster 2, Princeton 0
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — Corinne McConville has had quite the last couple of years.
She has played for the United States indoor women’s national team the last couple of seasons. She also scored the game-winning overtime penalty stroke for Lehighton (Pa.) in the PIAA Class AA state championship game. And to cap off her senior campaign, she helped lead her U-19 Futures team, Lancaster, to a 2-0 victory over Princeton in the gold-medal match. It is the eighth straight U-19 gold medal for Region 5.
“I feel like my high-school championship was the peak for the first chapter of my life,” said the Albany-bound McConville. “I feel as though I’m going into another four-year cycle, and it’s going to be a hard uphill battle, just like it was before. I want to keep playing as long as possible. I’m going to keep fighting.”
It was an uphill fight for Lancaster throughout, despite its considerable talent. The team had to play its opening matches on the rubberized artificial grass at the Virginia Beach Sportsplex Stadium instead of the National Training Center, which is water-based artificial turf.
“It took us a while to come together,” McConville said. “It was difficult playing over (at the stadium); it was not a reflection of how well we could play field hockey at all. But when we got (to the NTC), we clicked really well together. This is where we should have been all along.”
Mind you, Lancaster went through pool play with the biggest goal differential of any of the 16 teams in the U-19 tournament (+8), having won their first two games 3-0 and 5-0.
On the other hand, Princeton scraped through to the final with penalty-stroke wins in the quarterfinal and semifinal matches. The Region 6 representatives kept their defensive shape through most of regulation, but broke through 10 minutes into the second half when Whitney Reddig got a through pass into the circle and inserted the ball into the cage to open her side’s account.
“The girl who passed the ball to me is on my high school team (Lititz Warwick, Pa.) and we read each other well,” Reddig said. “I had my stick down and it went in. It was lucky. After that, we picked it up on offense.”
McConville would follow on seven minutes later with a rebound from a penalty corner.
FULL TIME At the final horn, Lancaster wins 2-0 for Region 5′s eighth straight U-19 Futures gold medal
48:30 PRI PC leads to two good saves by Millen; that might have been Princeton’s last gasp
41:58 LAN PC and GOAL Corinne McConville puts in the rebound and it’s 2-0 for Lancaster
41:30 LAN PC is saved by Giordano
41:15 PRI PC is broken down and sent the other way
37:00 Giordano now in goal for Princeton
35:30 LAN GOAL Whitney Reddig breaks through at last; Lancaster leads 1-0
32:00 LAN PC Renee Suter knocks it wide
31:30 A Lancaster flick is deftly saved by Horner
31:00 Lancaster attacking pressure forces Horner down and Princeton clears their lines
28:00 Lancaster shoots from a sharp angle and the attempt is saved by Horner
25:01 Horner back in goal for Princeton, and Elizabeth Millen is patrolling the Lancaster circle
25:00 And the second half is under way
HALFTIME Lancaster has had more shots on cage, but Princeton has worked their opportunities to better angles, only to have their shots smothered by Lancaster’s backs.
HALFTIME At the half, we are tied 0-0
23:30 LAN is buzzing and getting shots on Giordano, but from poor angles
20:45 PRI PC is smartly snuffed out by Abby Furhman
18:09 LAN PC is saved by Giordano and a follow-up is cleared off the line!
13:48 Nicole Giordano is now in the Princeton cage
11:15 LAN PC is defensed by Keelin Winslow
7:00 Lancaster has manufactured a couple of half-chances but the game remains a midfield battle
0:00 Rachel Leszkowicz is in goal for Lancaster and Carolyn Horner is in the Princeton cage
0:00 The game is on
PREGAME Princeton (Reg. 6) is in the navy, Lancaster (Reg. 5) is in the white
PEREGAME The coaches in this matchup are titans in the club system and in youth hockey development. Princeton coach Nancy McHale runs the Spirit of USA program and has coached gold-medal teams at Festival and the National Indoor Tournament. Lancaster coach Jun Kentwell has done the same with her club, WC Eagles
PREGAME The teams are warming up under breezy sunshine that will intensify later in the game
June 26, 2010 — Women’s National Championship final: New Jersey 1, Pennsylvania 0
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. –Ever since USA Field Hockey’s concept of a summer league involved into regional high-performance center teams meeting for a weeklong tournament, head coach Kristen Holmes-Winn has found the formula for success, no matter whether the team is named New Jersey/Pennsylvania or New Jersey.
The formula has been great defense, combined with deadly combination play up top. Katie Reinprecht’s seventh-minute goal held up for the rest of the game as New Jersey overcame Pennsylvania 1-0. It was the third championship in four seasons for this high-performance center.
The New Jersey defense, led by center back Rachel Dawson and midfielder Katie Evans, were extremely stout in front of goalie Sarah Dalrymple, who had an outstanding match even whilst the team had three players carded in the second half, thereby having to play short.
Dalrymple came into Temple University as a defensive midfielder, but made the switch to goal after her redshirt 2006 season. She was a soccer goalie at Hanover South Western (Pa.) and used all of those instincts during the national championship tournament.
“We first saw her at trials for making the team,” Holmes-Winn said. “She’s one of those special players who reads the game early and well. She played out of her mind in this tournament, and saved us on a lot of occasions.”
“Sarah came in and played amazingly,” Reinprecht said. “We were so fortunate to have her.”
Reinprecht, for her part, worked extremely well with her Princeton teammates Alyssa Pyros and Kat Sharkey in the midfield, springing players forward for open shots. But, as it turned out, the only goal that New Jersey scored was on Reinprecht’s deflected blast.
“We knew it was going to be a challenge this year, because we had a lot of young players coming in,” said Reinprecht, the U.S. national team midfielder. “But it was exciting to take on this challenge.”
FULL TIME New Jersey wins another Women’s National Championship with a 1-0 win and Sarah Dalrymple’s clean sheet
69:34 PA PC Jen Stone’s shot is saved by Dalrymple again and cleared; that could be the final chance for Pennsylvania
69:09 PA PC Amy Daniel’s shot stopped by Dalrymple
66:36 NJ YELLOW Gerzabek is sent off for five minutes; could this change the game at this late stage?
65:00 NJ goes up the gut again with Sharkey and Reinprecht; can they do this all day?
63:30 PA PC Bashore shot is saved by a logged Dalrymple
63:08 PA PC Blocked in front with a foot
61:45 PA PC Bashore shot blocked; Keli Smirh’s follow hits a foot
55:00 A quarter-hour to go; what can Pennsylvania do to change the attack?
51:30 NJ PC is a duffed 1-up
44:45 PA has a chance to level but the ball goes just wide; was that an opportunity lost?
38:28 NJ GREEN Dawson suspended for two minutes; this could change the shape of the game
37:31 NJ GREEN Sharkey suspended for two minutes
35:00 And the second half is under way
HALF TIME Pennsylvania has plenty of firepower but are finding it difficult to get the ball past center back Rachel Dawson and the rest of the Jersey back seven
HALF TIME At the end of a taut, skilled first half, New Jersey leads Pennsylvania 1-0
34:50 NJ PC and we’ll have an untimed corner, which Rachel Dawson dragflucks wide
34:00 Last minute of the first half; a goal for either side could be critical
23:00 NJ PC A high-low pass fails to fund a target
22:01 NJ PC Reinprecht blasts the ball and it is well-saved by Kelsey Andersen
16:15 PA PC Bashore strikes the ball wide right
14:48 PA PC Kayla Bashore’s blast is well-saved by Sarah Dalrymple
12:30 NJ PC is a passing play that breaks down
12:00 A well-worked buildup finds Kat Sharkey snaking up the middle: Pennsylvania needs to tighten that up if they want to stay in this game
6:30 NJ GOAL Katie Reinprecht opens New Jersey’s account with a tidy finish
0:00 The game is on
PREGAME Pennsylvania will be wearing the yellow jerseys with the black socks, New Jersey is in the white jerseys with the grey socks
PREGAME These teams met in pool play and drew 3-3
PREGAME The teams are warming up under strong sunshine but the temperatures are cooling somewhat
June 26, 2010 — Junior National Championship final: Pennsylvania 2, Mid-Atlantic 0
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — Jeremy Cook, the Bucknell head coach who guided the Pennsylvania High Performance Center team at the Junior Women’s National Championship, did not want his team to become too overconfident after the Keystoners rolled up six goals in their first match of pool play.
“He told us to consider the pool matches as practice,” said Pennsylvania captain Kirstin Gebhart. “because we all would make it into the crossover round.”
Evidently, it worked. Pennsylvania got early first-half goals from Jill Witmer (second minute) and Nicole Schuster (11th minute) and defeated the Mid-Atlantic Thundersticks 2-0.
“We peaked defensively at the right time,” he said. “We got those two early goals and held on for dear life at the end.”
For the Pennsylvania High Peformance Center representatives, getting off to a good start was key to dictating the pace and flow of the match.
“We worked really hard this entire tournament,” said the Maryland-bound Witmer, “and it paid off.”
Mid-Atlantic did what it could to circle the wagons in the offensive end of the field, but a Pennsylvania defense led by Tayler Siegrist and goalie Ann Jefferis held off the Thundersticks.
“I felt very fortunate that Tayler was able to join us, because she’s one of my players up at Bucknell, and it’s been fun to work with her,” Cook said. “Ann has the experience and she really stepped up for us in the crossovers and the final. Goalkeeping was one of our biggest strengths.”
Given the nature and novelty of the structure of this high-performance tournament, there were a few oddities. Kirstin Gebhart captained a junior side, while her sister Laura played in the senior national tournament.
“There were a lot of people from the national team who were trying out for my position,” said the Keystoners’ captain. “And it turns out that wasn’t the case for Laura.”
“There was a lot of parity in this tournament,” Cook said. “Any one of us could have beaten any of the others, and it was very even across the board.”
FULL TIME And that’s it — Pennsylvania wins the inaugural Junior Women’s National Championship with a 2-0 win over Mid-Atlantic
69:00 Last minute of play and PA is keeping it at the corner flag
67:00 ATL is passing around the perimeter with every PA player withdrawn into the 25, but cannot find a teammate
60:00 Play continues in the midfield but neither team is mustering the requisite chances at the moment
50:15 ATL PC is golfed wide
49:15 ATL PC A low pass defended by Steph Hussey
43:00 Mid-Atlantic has had its chances but Pennsylvania has closed down well, and Jefferis has not put a foot wrong
35:15 ATL PC is a low drag flick saved by Jefferis
35:00 And the second half is under way
HALF TIME This is the inaugural final of the Junior National Championship, and, as such, there are some oddities when it comes to the rosters. Kristin Gebhart is in college and is in the junior tournament. Her younger sister Laura, a rising senior in high school, is competing in the senior national championship game later today
HALF TIME At the interval, Pennsylvania leads Mid-Atlantic 2-0
34:24 Mary Barham goes down with an injury and comes off under her own power
33:02 ATL PC is an option left but is knocked out of play
27:30 PA PC is defensed by Taylor West at flyer
20:50 PA PC is cleared by Cristen Atchison
13:00 ATL PC The Thundersticks cannot get a good direct shot; they’ll need to do better if they want to get back in this
10:48 PA PC and GOAL Kirstin Gebhart knocks a pass that Nicole Schuster finishes at the far post and the lead is two
7:51 ATL PC results in no shot because of a bad insert
5:10 ATL PC is cleared by Tayler Siegrist
3:15 ATL tries to respond, but Ann Jefferis turns away a pair of open shots in the circle
1:27 PA GOAL A dream start for the Keystoners as Jill Witmer knocks one into the netting from open play
0:00 The game is on
PREGAME Pennsylvania is in the yellow, and Mid-Atlantic is in the blue
PREGAME The teams are warming up under partly cloudy skies with temperatures in the mid 90s. The occasional overcast can cool off the atmosphere quickly with the sea breezes. There is a chance of thunderstorms this evening.
June 25, 2010 — Futures U-16 final: Trenton 2, West Chester 1
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. – Before Trenton, the U-16 National Futures Tournament all-star team from Region 6, took on West Chester of Region 5 before their gold-medal match, a voice piped up from the team meeting. But it didn’t come from head coach Sue Donaldson, the Rowan University assistant. Instead it came from one of the Trenton players.
“We can be, and are, just as good as they are,” the conversation went.
That sense of self-belief had driven Trenton through some heart-stopping results in the quarterfinal and semifinal rounds, and eventually vaulted the team to a dramatic 2-1 victory over West Chester in the final. The win snapped Region 5′s nine-year winning streak in the U-16 division.
“They came back strong,” Donaldson said. “They have a great intensity and a willingness to work together. Our big thing this year was to be accountable to each other and keep each other lifted up, and they are all that.”
And let it be known that the scorer of the game-winning goal, Emma Johansson, is a rising sophomore at Voorhees Eastern (N.J.), the dominant scholastic field hockey program in the United States over the past 11 years. She learned her youth hockey from Lori Hillman at Gibbsboro Middle School, who coached a gold-medal U-14 Futures side a year ago.
“She did a really good job preparing us,” Johansson said. “Going into high school we got to know more of the strategy and we know the game more.”
While the scoreboard may show that Johansson’s goal was the game-winner, the play of Tara Vittese was the game-changer. She assisted Johansson’s goal, opened Trenton’s account in the 13th minute, and was all over the field disrupting the speedy West Chester attack.
There was a spot of tension once West Chester equalized off a long lead pass seven minutes into the second half. Kayla Garzio latched onto the ball at the right post and slipped the ball into the cage, which led to a burst of spirited play at both ends.
Trenton, which played very good defense on the day, was able to set up its game-winner after West Chester seemingly passed up a couple of half-chances at the edge of the circle. Trenton turned the ball up the pitch, whereupon Vittese’s pass found an open Johansson.
Trenton, despite winning its pool, had a rough road to the final. Its quarterfinal match with Sheffield went into penalty strikes, and the semifinal game with Columbus was a seven-goal thriller which saw Trenton take a 4-1 lead, but held on for a 4-3 victory.
“We had very good chemistry from the beginning,” Johansson said. “But we pulled through in our first crossover game when we had to go into strokes. And it was crazy hot when we played that game.”
FULL TIME The horn signals the end of the match as well as an end to an unprecedented run of championship form for Futures Region 5, which had won every U-16 and U-19 title since the NFT moved to Landstown Road in 2002
49:58 Last possession for WCH goes over the end line
48:30 WCH PC is interrupted by a bad set
47:38 TRE GOAL off a goalmouth scramble! Trenton is on the lead! Emma Johannson puts in a Vittese pass and it’s 2-1
46:50 TRE PC A hard shot almost trickles in. Play remains in the Trenton attack end
44:00 WCH passes up a couple of long shots and Trenton is hard and sure in the tackle
34:35 TRE PC A long rebound lays tantalizingly on the doorstep and is shot wide; that would have been the chance!
32:20 WCH GOAL Kayla Garzio snares a long lead pass and slips it over the line for the equalizer
30:15 TRE PC is a high-low from the opposite wing but is cleared
29:30 TRE PC is a high-low but Vittese is fouled and we’ll reset
26:00 Trenton still has a lot of work to do, but they have the lead and are confident on the ball. WCH is having to chase the game a bit
25:01 The second half is under way
HALFTIME At the interval, Trenton leads West Chester 1-0. Could this be the first time Region 5 loses a U16 or U19 gold medal since 2001?
25:00 WCH PC is defensed by Marissa Cutry on an untimed corner play
20:10 WCH PC Broken corner cleared by Vittese despite being hounded by Stefanaides
12:55 TRE PC and GOAL Tara Vittese flips an option-left into the cage off a WCH back and Trenton takes the lead
8:20 Madison Copeland has a breakaway for Trenton but her backhand is wide
3:24 WCH PC Nice passing play to Kristian Stefanaides but skiffles wide
0:00 The game is on
PREGAME Both teams scraped into the final against stiff opposition. Trenton outlasted Columbus 4-3 and West Chester beat Kutztown 2-1
PREGAME The teams are Trenton from Futures Region 6 and West Chester from Region 5. Region 5 has been the dominant region since the tournament moved to Virginia Beach in 2002. WCH coach Clarence Jennelle has coached a number of medalists in recent years, and TRE coach Sue Donaldson is assistant coach at Rowan University. Will it be 2-for-2 for college coaches here?
PREGAME The teams are warming up under hazy sun with highs in the mid-90s … much cooler than yesterday, when some estimates put the heat index at somewhere around 110.
June 24, 2010 — USA North takes U-14 Futures with perfect pool record
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. – You could have forgiven the USA North team in the U-14 National Futures Tournament if they coasted in their final pool match against USA South. All the North needed was a draw or to not lose a sizable goal differential they held on South and USA Blue, both of whom were a game adrift in round-robin play.
But an announcement came over the public-address system at the National Training Center that there would be no classification games in the U-14 division. Triple-digit heat and a heat index estimated to be somewhere around 110 degrees forced the first non-lightning-related schedule change since the NFT moved to Virginia Beach in 2002, and it also made the result of the pool match absolutely critical, especially since North had fallen a goal behind at the interval.
“We knew we had to get some goals in the cage so that we could definitely get the gold medal at the end of the game,” said North coach Megan Eddinger. “The announcement definitely changed our mentality.”
Gabrielle Major and Danielle Maines struck in the second term to give their team a 2-1 victory and a 100 percent record in pool play, which was good enough for the gold medal in the U-14 division.
“They’re a very talented group, and they come from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Delaware, and one of our goalies is from Massachusetts, and they’re doing very well together,” said Eddinger, the head coach at Muhlenberg College. “They’re a very good offensive team, but they pulled together defensively.”
Indeed, the goal South scored in the first half in the final pool match was only the second North had conceded in round-robin play in the tournament.
But it didn’t take very long coming out of halftime for North to strike, as Major knocked in a cross to level the match.
“(Eddinger) told us at halftime that we had to start moving to the ball because we were sitting back a lot, and that we had to set them on their heels,” Major said. “It was kind of a wakeup call for us, that we needed to put our heads together.”
Maines stuck in a rebound a few minutes later and North had a comfortable cushion in the standings.
“We tried our best in the second half,” she said. “By our first or second game, we had really come together. I’ve never played with a group like this before.”
June 24, 2010 — An unexpected dynasty
In an era full of championship streaks in field hockey (Eastern’s 11 straight in New Jersey, Greenwich Academy’s eight straight in NEPSAC, and nine years of gold-medal sweeps Pennsylvania Region 5 in U16 and U19 Futures), a dynasty has spring up in the city of Philadelphia. The East Coast Juniors are to defend the 2010 Junior Men’s National Championship, which they have won the past three years.
June 23, 2010 — Ni, Po, Chickahominy, Rip-Rap … and water
Made the annual trip to the National Futures Tournament in Virginia Beach, and a popup thunderstorm hit just as I arrived at the hotel.
Actually, “popup thunderstorm” is not an apt explanation. It was a monsoon.
I’m pretty thankful to be in one piece after all that!
