Young field hockey team surging

By Sam Kirtley, contributing writer
Posted on October 1, 2007 

JMU’s field hockey team improved to 8-2 with a 1-0 win over the Drexel Dragons Friday night. Junior Melissa Stefaniak scored her fifth goal of the season in the 16th minute, and it held up as the game-winner.

“I feel like I’m having a pretty good season and scoring a few goals here and there but I definitely have to say without my team I couldn’t do anything,” Stefaniak said.

The win propelled the Dukes to a 3-0 record within the Colonial Athletic Association.

Last year the Dukes won the CAA tournament, and the conference crown has raised expectations for the team. With key players returning, JMU has its eyes on a repeat.

“I definitely think we are accomplishing the goals we set [in] preseason,” Stefaniak said. “Of course, we would rather be 10-0, but that’s in our past and we are just focusing on what we have to come,”

The teams two losses came against Atlantic Coast Conference opponents, Virginia and North Carolina.

“I mean certainly beating Penn State was a big win for us, but we wish maybe we had beaten an ACC school like Virginia or North Carolina,” JMU coach Antoinette Lucas said.

A bright spot for the Dukes in their 1-0 victory over the Drexel Dragons was sophomore goalie Kelsey Cutchins.

Cutchins posted her third individual shutout of the season, and JMU improved upon its goals allowed per game average  (0.78) which is third in the nation.

“I am doing my best in goal and with the tremendous help of the defense and the rest of the team we have been great at keeping other teams at bay,” Cutchins said.

With the way the defense has been playing, the Dukes are set to make a serious push at their second straight CAA tournament championship. Madison faces Old Dominion in a rematch of last year’s championship game on October 20  at home.

“We are certainly on track with the CAA’s but we still have a long way to go,” coach Lucas said. “We want to go into the CAA tournament ranked first or second so we get the bye going into the tournament.”

The Dukes are currently the No. 7 team in the nation (STX/National Field Hockey Coaches Association poll). However, they still have  obstacles to overcome, particularly  their youth.

“We’re such a young team that’s learning and growing from our mistakes everyday but the biggest task we have to overcome is beating the top ranked teams, like UNC, ODU, and American,” Stefaniak said.

With the Dukes playing so well defensively, the biggest challenge they face in the coming weeks may be just as mental as it is physical.

“Our challenge right now is continue to push ourselves with 19 players to keep getting better from day to day in practice,” Lucas said. “We have to take one game at a time.”

With a victory over Hofstra on Sunday, Madison improved to 9-2 overall and 4-0 conference. The Dukes play next Friday at Virginia Commonwealth, and return to JMU for a game against California on Sunday.