Sept. 15, 2006
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ON THE ROAD AGAIN: The Lady Monarchs embarkon a five game road trip this week starting with a trip one statesouth to face #4 North Carolina and #5 Duke. So far this seasonOld Dominion in 3-1 on the road, including a neutral site meetingwith Ohio. All together, in the next three weeks, the LadyMonarchs will have traveled to three states (North Carolina, NewJersey, Pennsylvania) and nearly 1,500 miles. Old Dominionreturns on Sunday, October 1st against CAA opponent Towson.
SEE YA REAL SOON: No matter the outcome of thegames this weekend against North Carolina and Duke, the LadyMonarchs will see these two teams again. Along with Maryland,Old Dominion will has a home-and-home series with the twoteams. Rematches will occur at Foreman Field on Sunday,October 15th for Duke on Saturday, October 28th for NorthCarolina. Note: The home game against the Tar Heels will be the annual scholarship game with the $5.00 admission tobenefit the Intercolleigate Foundation for Field Hockey Scholarships.
NICHOLS NAMED PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Senior defender Caroline Nichols became the second LadyMonarch to earn a CAA weekly honor as she was named the conference's Player of the Week for the week endingSeptember 10th. The senior defender anchored the Old Dominion backfield which boasted two shutouts last week, asthe Lady Monarchs picked up two wins against ranked opponents. Nichols' defensive effort helped ODU to its firstshutout in a 3-0 victory over #19 Richmond as the Spiders were held to four total shots including just one in the firsthalf. She followed by helping the Lady Monarchs to back-to-back shutouts with a 2-0 victory over #20 Michigan.Along with helping to keep the Wolverines without a shot in the first half, Nichols captured the game-winner as shedrilled home a shot on a Lady Monarch penalty corner attempt.
NICHOLS CLAIMS ANOTHER AWARD: Not only was senior defender Caroline Nichols named the CAAPlayer of the Week for her efforts last week, she was also named to the Women's Field Hockey.com honor roll.
FACES IN THE CROWD: Freshman KatieUeberroth was featued in Sports Illustrated's September 18thissue in the weekly magazine's "Faces In the Crowd" feature.Ueberroth earned the honor after being name the CAA'sRookie of the Week the first week of the season. The freshmanmidfielder came off the Lady Monarch bench helpingODU to a 3-1 victory over #7 Penn State and a 6-1 win overOhio with two goals and an assist. She tallied ODU's third andfinal goal against the Nittany Lions and then followed byassisting Sami McLenegan's game-winner in Sunday's winover Ohio and scoring the Lady Monarchs' sixth and finalgoal of the game.
THIS IS HOW WE START: Old Dominon started off the 2006 campaign with a 3-0 start, its best start to a seasonsince they started off the 2002 Final Four season 3-0 as well. On Monday, defending national champions No. 1Maryland put a halt to win streak in a thrilling 1-0 game. Ironically it was also Maryland, also ranked #1 at the time,who snapped the 2002 team's three game season opening win streak as well. In that game, the Lady Monarchs fell 0-2. During the win streak this season, Old Dominion downed two ranked opponents with a 3-1 win over #7 Penn Stateand a 3-2 victory over #19 Virginia. Also in the win streak was a 6-1 win over Ohio University, who was receivingvotes in the NFHCA Poll. To date, the Lady Monarchs have a 5-1 record, which is still the best start since 2002 when the Lady Monarchs kicked off the season with the same mark.
WELCOME HOME: Old Dominion opened up playat home last weekend picking up two ranked victories. TheLady Monarchs downed #19 Richmond, 3-0, and #20Michigan, 2-0, for a 2-0 home record so far at Foreman Fieldthis season. The Lady Monarchs have one of the toughesthome field turfs to play on. Last season, the Lady Monarchsboasted a 9-3 record with the two of the three losses comingagainst teams ranked in the top three.
LAST TIME VS. NORTH CAROLINA: The seventh-ranked Old Dominion field hockey team took it to the nation's top scoring defense on October 29th at Foreman Field asthey handed the fourth-ranked North Carolina Tar Heels a 5-0 shutout. The victory upped ODU's mark to 14-5 overall asthe Lady Monarchs close out non-conference competition with a 7-5 mark. The Tar Heels, who led the nation in scoringdefense allowing only an average of .720 goals per game entering Saturday's game, gave up the most goals of any game thatseason and the most to a Lady Monarch team since 2001. Additionally, it was Old Dominion's largest margin of victoryagainst the Tar Heels since 1998 when Old Dominion downed North Carolina by five goals, 7-2, during the NCAATournament. On senior day, it was Janelle Engle who collected what would be the game-winner as she put away a penaltycorner opportunity in the game in the 12th minute of action. Over the course of the next four minutes, Old Dominion wouldgo up 3-0 on the Tar Heels from unassisted goals by Dana Sensenig and Sami McLenegan.In the second half, the Lady Monarchs put away two more from Sensenig, and Denise Admiraal (Heillo, Holland), with her15th. In net, former keeper Mary Cate Gordon posted three saves to preserve her sixth shutout of the season. NorthCarolina's Katy Tran made two stops, while Marie Bounds made one save playing in the game's final 10 minute. Tran hadentered the game leading the nation in goals against average and ranking second in save percentage. Overall, Old Dominionoutshot North Carolina, 14-8, and outcornered the Tar Heels by one, 5-4.
LAST TIME VS. DUKE: The eighth ranked Old Dominion field hockey team had its eight-game win streak come toa halt as the third ranked Duke Blue Devils came away with a 3-2 victory on October 16th at Foreman Field.The loss, which dropped the Lady Monarchs to 11-5 overall, was ODU's first loss since a September 17th loss at NorthCarolina. The win streak actually began against the Blue Devils as Old Dominion took the first of a home-and-home series,5-2. The Blue Devils struck first, 3:50 into the contest. Kirsten Bostrom collected the ball to the right of the Lady Monarchnet and send the ball across the opposite side of the cage to Nicole Dudek for the 1-0 Blue Devil lead.Old Dominion broke onto the scoreboard at the 12th minute on a penalty corner opportunity. Former Lady Monarch seniorJanelle Engle fired away on net for her 14th tally of the 2005 season after the insert from Dana Sensenig and stick stop byCaroline Nichols. Dudek struck again at the 25th minute to give Duke the lead for good. Dudek intercepted a LadyMonarch pass and drove into the circle and past ODU keeper Mary Cate Gordon for a 2-1 Blue Devil edge at the half.Duke went up 3-1 at the 42nd minute in the second half thanks to Laura Suchoski finding a gap while on the right side of thecircle. The Lady Monarchs pulled within one moments later. Nicolien van Nispen drilled the ball past Duke netminderChristy Morgan near the top left of the circle leaving ODU trailing 3-2 with 25:41 left in the game. Neither team could convertin the remaining time. The Lady Monarchs had several late chances, including two occasions in the closing minuteswhere the ball found the back of the Duke net, but was hit outside the circle. Duke held the advantage in shots 14-12, whileOld Dominion held a slight edge in penalty corners, 5-4.
FAMILIAR FACE IN DURHAM: Take a look at the sidelines in Durham and you might see a familiar LadyMonarch face on the sideline. Former midfielder Tara Herrmann (`03) is a volunteer assistant with the Duke Blue Devils.In her four years at ODU, Herrmann was a two-time All-CAAselection, a two-time all-region pick and a third-team All-American in 2001. She was named to the 2002-03 Verizon Academic All-America Women's At-Large third team and was athree-time NFHCA national scholar-athlete. Hermann, a four-time CAA Scholar-Athlete, also earned the Jack Wilkins/JamesHoward Scholar-Athlete of the Year Award in 2003. Herrmann led the Lady Monarchs to fourth CAA titles and closed hercareer with 45 goals with nine assists (99 points). She helped guide Old Dominion to a No. 1 final ranking in theSTX/NFHCA Div. 1 Coaches'Poll, the top seed in the 2002 NCAATournament and the program's 15th Final Four appearance.She graduated from Old Dominion in 2003 with a 3.94 grade-point average, receiving a Bachelor of Science degree inbiology with a minor in chemistry Three of the last four weeks there have been a ODU coaching connecting. Penn State,who ODU opened the season against, is coached by Char Morrett, a former ODU assistant, and last weekend Lynn Farquhar(`04) returned to Foreman Field as an assistant coach with the University of Richmond.
RANK`EM UP: So far to date the Lady Monarchs are 4-1 against ranked competition and 3-1 against teams eitherranked or receiving votes in the polls. ODU is 1-1 against Top Ten opponents with a win against #7 Penn State and a loss to #1 Maryland. Old Dominion still has three more ranked opponents according to the latest NFHCA Poll on the schedule with #13 James Madison, #17 William & Mary, and #18 Hofstraalong with rematches against #1 Maryland, #4 North Carolina, and #5 Duke.
FORMER LADY MONARCHS IN THE NEWS - WORLD CUP: USAField Hockey and women's national team coach Lee Bodimeade have announced that three formerLady Monarchs will be among the 18-member team to represent the USA at next month's Samsung World Cup in Madrid, Spain. Honda Award winner Tiffany Snow, All-American AngieLoy, and defensive specialist Melissa Leonetti will try to help the US team bring home gold beginning on September 27th. The USAwill meet Argentina in the team's World Cup opener onSept. 27 and will meet Australia in the second game on Sept. 28. The USAearned its first victory over Argentina in 16 years with a 2-1 win during the AstroTurf March on Madrid andearned a 1-1 draw with Australia during the first round of the event.
COMING UP: Old Dominion is on the road again as they renew a rivalry with Princeton on Saturday, September 23rd and open up Colonial Athletic Association action againstDrexel in Philadelphia. The Dragons are one of the hottest teams in the conference entering this weekend with a 5-0 mark.