Michael Zhang '26
Nov 3, 2023
Last Saturday, the Blue Storm field hockey team played against The Hill School. Hill has been historically a very tough opponent. The team lost the intense match 0-9, which dropped the record for the season 2-11.
Despite the loss, the team maintained a high spirit with an optimistic attitude. Head coach Michaela Singer said, “The competition that we play is really difficult. But given the competition, I think the girls take what’s given and they play their hearts out; most importantly, they play really well.”
Scarlett McArthur ’24 added, “We are working excellently together. We’ve improved a lot since the beginning of the season.”
Players on the team foster a strong team dynamic among themselves and their coaches. Emma Diianni ’25 said, “We are very close with each other. We’re close with our coaches, which helps us on and off the field. We feel like one big family.” Lexi Chepren ’26 concurred, “Our team has come together with communication and is working together really well this season.” Maria Rihn ’24 added, “We acknowledge that we’re not the most skill-based team, but we’re always very supportive of each other.
Compared to last season, due to the loss of many seniors the team consists of younger players. Catherine Kidd ’24 said, “We lost seven seniors from last year. Most of our players are either new to the sport or new to the team.”
The seniors last year had more experience with the sport. “[Our seniors] played a faster game. We also had Division 1 athletes. This year, we have more newcomers,” added Chepren. “But it’s going very well. We’ve worked together really well, and we’ve had a couple [of] close games. It’s impressive how far we’ve come along.”
Many new players were returning students who transferred from other sports. Singer said, “Diianni has stepped it up as our midfielder; she’s been a big part of the team. McArthur also started playing the sport this year for the first time as a senior and she has been a huge part of our defensive unit. And our new goalie Grace Beard [’25] has been phenomenal.”
The team prepared rigorously to prepare for their match against Hill. “We watched some film of [Hill] in their games. During practice, we did a lot of defensive work,” said Rihn.
The coaches also took the field in practice to elevate the level of play. “Because our girls aren’t quite at that [Hill’s] level yet, so playing against each other doesn’t prepare them,” explained Singer.
The season hasn’t been without its challenges. The girls have admitted that this isn’t a season with many wins. “Trying to deal with the losses was difficult. But we try not to think about how we didn’t win with the score, but looking at what we did win personally in the match,” said Singer.
Despite these challenges, the players are in high spirits. “We just want to put up some more points and continue having fun out there,” echoed McArthur. Kidd added, “We’ve been very good at keeping it [the team spirit] high. We’re having small victories within every game.”
With one more game left in the season, the players remain full of excitement and energy. Diianni said, “We want to go out with a bang. We really want to let it all loose, and have our last game be the game that defines us, to show how much we’ve improved this season.”