Field Hockey Returns Experienced Senior Class

The Whaler field hockey team finished their regular season with a 9-5-3 record last year and advanced to the Round of 16 for a second consecutive year. This year, they will return much of the same core that has helped them go 18-13-6 over the past two years – which has head coach Dan Weber excited for what is to come this fall.

“I think just in general, they all have a really good level of confidence with each other," Weber said. "You can see it when they're playing. They seem to trust each other where they're going to be. They trust each other to be playing a certain way, and I don't feel like there's going to be anybody dragging anybody along. I think everybody knows what the deal is, what we want to do, and everybody is going to be up to that level.”

The team will need to replace last year’s leading scorer – Caroline Allen – but Weber said he believes the scoring depth is as good as they’ve had in recent years.

"I think what you'll end up seeing is, if I had to make a prediction, you're probably going to see the scoring spread out pretty greatly just because there's a lot of good field hockey players," he said.

The senior core consists of Suz Peraner (captain), Mayson Lower (captain), Maddie Lombardi (captain), Claire Genthner, Sam Zadroga, Caroline Collette, and Ieva Meidus.

"Suz was borderline league MVP last year, so I expect her to play really well,” Weber said. “Sam Zadroga looks really good up front early on in the season. We have a lot of girls who are four-year players, and a few who have been four-year starters. So it feels good. I think they'd tell you we kind of hit the ground running here. There hasn't been a lot of onboarding that's needed to happen.”

Weber pointed to Lombardi and Lower being anchors in the midfield and defense. He said their ability’s on the field, to go along with their leadership qualities that led to them being selected captains, will play a key role in helping the group maintain a defensive identity that helped the secure 12 shutouts last fall.

"Those two in those positions, and then also being captains, I think they make everything easier for us as coaches," Weber said. "Just being girls who know what the deal is and know what their responsibility is to the team and things like that.”

The experience trickles down all the way to the net as well, with Shelbi Harimon returning for her third year as the team’s starting goalie.

"It's a nice thing to have the consistency in net that we have had," Weber said. “Shelbi looks good again and ready to go. I think the team has a ton of confidence in her.”

The Whalers have already played several scrimmages – beating Barnstable 4-1 and then winning three of four games last weekend during a “Play Day.”

“We lost to Barnstable last year, but they graduated a large senior class,” Weber said. “But that is a big school and a good program. Then in that play day we faced St. John Paul II, Scituate, Martha’s Vineyard, and Dennis-Yarmouth. We beat St. John Paul, Scituate, Martha’s Vineyard, but we lost to DY. They do a lot of the little things really well. We can learn a lot from them. I think it is one of the reasons we struggled in that game was fundamental things, but the good thing is those are easy for us to fix. I thought overall we played well otherwise, and we are scoring goals.”

The Whalers first game is scheduled for Wednesday, September 4 at home against Dennis-Yarmouth at 3:45 p.m. You can view their full schedule by clicking here.