The varsity field hockey team has had a promising start to this years’ season, with Laura Brager taking the lead as their new head coach. After an exciting 1-0 win against Poolesville in their first game, the team is confident that they will continue to succeed.
“We have been getting better day in and day out. We have played well in our recent games and I cannot wait to see where that progress takes us,” senior captain Olivia McCloskey said.
The team won their game against Magruder with a score of 6-1 on Thursday night. This year, varsity field hockey has three new senior captains, McCloskey, Julia Ratner and Abby Slack.
“[Lilly Delp and Gillian Rosenstock] are high goal scorers and their incredible stick skills and ball control create opportunities for their teammates to score as well. [Hildi Altman] has perfect timing, powerful passes and a great sense of the position,” Brager said.
Lilly Delp has maintained a starting position on varsity since her sophomore year. Altman and Rosenstock, both sophomores, seem to be following in Delp’s footsteps to success on the field.
“As a senior, we’re feeling great, we have a lot of seniors on our team. And we’ve all come really close together through the preseason. We’re confident coming into this season,” senior defender Lucy Piemme said.
Though having underclassmen on the team is not a foreign concept to many varsity sports, many are surprised at field hockey’s amount this year.
“They are all very experienced for their age, we’re all really happy to have them on the team,” Piemme said.
As the season commences, the girls are happy to have Brager, who previously held a position as the junior varsity coach, take lead of the varsity team.
Senior midfielder Liv Haberman is especially glad to have that sense of familiarity follow her to varsity, after playing under Brager’s guidance her freshman and sophomore year.
“Brager knows the game more than a lot of people do. We like to have her guidance because she was with us when we were on junior varsity, so there’s definitely a comfortable environment there,” Haberman said.
The Wildcats play BCC at home on Thursday, Sept. 22 at 7 pm to hopefully advance their record to 4-0-1. During the game, the team will be fundraising for the One Love Foundation which helps teach people about healthy relationships.
