Shane EvansThe women’s field hockey team is off to a promising start with a Pennsylvania Athletic Conference record of five wins and one loss so far in the 2006 season. Their overall record is five wins and six losses.
Jackie Neary has been the women’s head coach for 11 years now. She won the field hockey coach of the year award in 2005. She is excited about the season, especially since the biggest challenges still lie ahead.
“October is a big month for us; so far we’ve won the games we were supposed to win, and now the hardest games are just coming up,” Neary said.
Though the women lost a large amount of seniors last year, Neary feels the returning members and the new freshmen are giving her no reason to worry.
Although the women feel that almost every team is equally talented and know not to take any of them lightly, the biggest competition in the PAC will be Alvernia, Misericordia and Eastern.
Alvernia is currently No. 1 in the PAC. Cabrini was supposed to play them on Sept. 16, but the game was postponed until Oct. 7.
“It was definitely better that the Alvernia game got postponed. We were their only loss in the PAC last year so now they’re out for blood,” senior English and communications major Meg Farrell said. “It gives us time to get even stronger as a team.”
One of the biggest hurdles in the season thus far is scoring. Every year every team gets better which makes it hard to score, according to Farrell. Along with scoring, not letting the other team score is another challenge.
“We have a tendency to play well the whole game and let a few fluky goals in that don’t reflect how well we have played. The bottom line is if we put the ball in the net and set the tone and pass of the game we have no hurdles stopping us,” senior education major Tami Scanlan said.
Senior marketing major Allison Sachs says that another major hurdle is learning to play together as a team.
“This season has had its ups and downs but we finally have reached our highest peak and came together as a team to win these past few games. The new freshmen have been a true asset to the team this year and I hope they continue to show their dedication through these next few important games,” Sachs said.
Cabrini has a small team compared to other years and they were off to a rocky start, but their Sept. 21 game against Rowan was where they truly overcame that obstacle and started being a team, according to Farrell.
“This team is full of talent and when it is displayed on the field at the same time we are unstoppable,” Scanlan said.
Cabrini ended their 2005 season as No. 2 in the PAC.
“No one is taking us for granted this year because of our success, but it’s kind of a catch-22 because sometimes it’s good being the underdog- – no one sees you coming,” Neary said.
