Oct. 13, 2006
Saturday, October 14 - #1 Maryland
Sunday, October 15 - #4 Duke
HOT TICKET: Old Dominion takes on two of the nation's premeire teams in #1 Maryland and #4 Duke. Meeting between the Lady Monarchs, Terrapins, and Blue Devils have become one of the biggest rivalries in collegiate field hockey.
WE MEET AGAIN: Old Dominion closes out home-and-home series with Maryland and Duke this weekend. On Saturday, the Lady Monarchs are looking to avenge its only loss of the year when they take on the Maryland Terrapins. Old Dominion fell, 1-0, in the first meeting in College Park. On Sunday, the Lady Monarchs take on Duke, a team they defeated in double overtime in Durham.
NEUTRAL: Following Saturday's contest with Maryland, Duke and William and Mary will play on Foreman Field in a neutral site contest.
TAKING THE CONFERENCE BY STORM: With two conference wins last weekend over Virginia Commonwealth and Delaware, the Lady Monarchs solidified their first place spot in the CAA. . Through the five games of CAA play, the Lady Monarchs have yet to let an opponent score. CAA opposition has been outscored 25-0, outshot 129-12 and outcorned 96-11.
LET'S HEAR IT FOR THE "D": Redshirt goalkeeper Kelly Driscoll and the Old Dominion defense continue to rack up the shutouts. With last week's 10-0 win at Virginia Commonwealth and a 2-0 victory at Delaware, the Lady Monarchs have posted six straight shutouts and eight total on the season. At home, Old Dominion has yet to allow an opponet score on Foreman Field. Driscoll meanwhile leads the nation in goals against average as only nine opponent shots have gotten past the ODU goalkeeper in 14 games.
THIS IS HOW WE START: Old Dominion is off to a 13-1 start, the best start by the program since 2000. That season the Lady Monarchs won the first two games of the season before falling to Maryland. The loss against the Terps would be the only that season as the Lady Monarchs rattled off 23 straight victories and brought home its last national championship. The 2006 campaign kicked off with a 3-0 start, its best start to a season since they started off the 2002 Final Four season 3-0 as well. Again it was Maryland who haulted the winning streak this season and also back in 2002.
HATS OFF: Sophomore Denise Admiraal became the first Lady Monarch to collect a hat trick this season as the midfielder captured three goals as one of four goal scorers in a 7-0 win against Towson. The hat trick was Admiraal's second of her career with the first against Delaware in last season's 6-2 win. The following weekend senior Darcy Pinchbeck became the second Lady Monarch to net three goals in a game as she was one of six goal scorers in a 10-0 route of Virginia Commonwealth.
WE'RE NOT HITTING THE ROAD JACK: The Old Dominion field hockey is now home to close out the three remaining weeks of regular season play on the road before CAA Tournament action begins. The Lady Monarchs compiled a 9-1 road record in 2006. While considered a "road" or "neutral" site game, the CAA Tournament will not be too far from campus as it is as the National Training Center in Virginia Beach.
FORMER LADY MONARCHS IN THE NEWS - NCAA WOMAN OF THE YEAR: Former Lady Monarch field hockey defender and 2006 Outstanding Female Athlete of the Year Janelle Engle (Mt. Joy, Pa.) is one of nine finalists for the 2006 Woman of the Year. The NCAA will announce the 2006 NCAA Woman of the Year on October 28 at a dinner in Indianapolis. Since 1991, the award has been presented annually to a senior student-athlete who has distinguished herself throughout her collegiate career in the areas of academic achievement, athletics excellence, service and leadership.Schools submitted nominations through their conferences and each league was allowed to select up to two nominees. From the conference nominees, the Woman of the Year selection committee will announce the top 10 selections in Divisions I, II and III, respectively. From each group of 10, a top three will be chosen. The 2006 Woman of the Year will be selected by the NCAA Committee on Women's Athletics from the pool of nine divisional honorees. Engle was named the 2006 CAA Player of the Year and earned first team All-American honors by the National Field Hockey Coaches Association (NFHCA). She led ODU and the CAA in scoring with 20 goals. She was selected by the ODU Alumni Association as the Female Athlete of the Year and the Norfolk Sports Club presented her with the Tom Scott award as the university's top senior athlete. In the classroom, Engle was a four-time NFHCA All-Academic selection, a USA TODAY All-USA College Academic Team nominee, and was the CAA's Scholar Athlete of the Year. Engle was a co-winner of the prestigious Jack Wilkins/James Howard Female Scholar Athletes of the Year at ODU as she attained a perfect 4.0. A music major, Engle was first violinist in the Deihn String Quartet and concertmaster of the ODU Symphony.
FORMER LADY MONARCHS IN THE NEWS - WORLD CUP: Three former Lady Monarchs, Honda Award winner Tiffany Snow, All-American Angie Loy, and defensive specialist Melissa Leonetti, helped Team USA to a sixth place finish at the 2006 World Cup in Madrid Spain. The USA fell to Argentina, 2-1 and Australia, 3-1, but drew 0-0 with Korea and picked up a 3-1 win over South Africa and 1-0 win over Korea to advance to the 5th-8th playoff game. Loy was one of three goal scorers in the win against South Africa. Snow scored the lone goal in the 1-0 upset over Germany in the playoff game and then took home sixth place with a 1-0 loss to Japan. The three Lady Monarchs helped the US Field Hockey team to its second highest showing at a World Cup since a third place finish in 1994 and only the third top six finish for a USA team since the team's first World Cup appearance in 1983.
FACES ON THE BENCH: Look over to the opponent bench and you just might see a familiar face. Penn State, who ODU opened the season against, is coached by Char Morrett, a former ODU assistant, Maryland assistant Marybeth Freeman (`03) was NCAA Tournament Team goalkeeper, Lynn Farquhar (`04) returned to Foreman Field as an assistant coach with the University of Richmond, and Tara Herrmann (`03) serves as a volunteer assistant with the Duke program, while Blue Devil head coach Beth Bozman spent a season as a graduate assistant with the ODU program. Old Dominion also saw a familiar face at Delaware. Fightin' Blue Hen assistant coach Dawn Hill (`86) helped ODU to three NCAA titles in 1982, 1983, and 1984 and also served as an assistant coach with the Lady Monarchs.
LAST TIME VS. MARYLAND: In what has become one of the most premiere matches in collegiate field hockey, the top ranked Maryland Terrapins edged out the fourth ranked Old Dominion Lady Monarchs, 1-0, back on September 4th. The defending national champions scored with 8:04 left in the game to claim victory. The loss is the first and only for the Lady Monarchs in 2006. In four of the last five games, the winner of the Maryland-Old Dominion match has been decided by one goal or less, including last year's NCAA semifinal match. Maryland's Paula Infante used a long pass to draw out Lady Monarch netminder Kelly Driscoll out of net. With Driscoll out near the circle, Infante's pass reached the Terps' Nicole Muracco who fed Kim Ziegler the ball for a shot on open net. The Terps outshot the Lady Monarchs 11-8. The first half saw Maryland control the offense outshooting ODU 8-2, however in the second half, the Lady Monarchs held the advantage 4-3. Junior Shannon Mobley led the Lady Monarchs in the shot department with two, both of them coming on net.Maryland outcornered Old Dominion 5-1 with all five Terp penalty corner attempts coming in half number one, while the Lady Monarchs' lone corner opportunity came in half number two. Driscoll posted a five saves in net. Kathryn Masson stopped three Lady Monarch shots on net.
LAST TIME VS. DUKE: The third-ranked Old Dominion field hockey team overcame a 3-1 halftime deficit and forced double overtime to earn a 4-3 victory over fifth-ranked Duke on September 17th at Williams Field. Colonial Athletic Association Player of the Week senior Caroline Nichols sent home the game-winner with 5:55 remaining in the second overtime session. Nine and a half minutes into the game, Duke's Marian Dickinson recorded her first of three goals goal off a rebounded shot. Less than two minutes later, the sophomore scored her second goal of the day on an assist from senior Hilary Linton, as the Blue Devils went up 2-0.Old Dominion leading scorer Dana Sensenig got the Lady Monarchs on the board, scoring at the 16:34 mark to bring ODU within one, 2-1.However, Dickinson struck again just before halftime, as she netted her third goal on an assist by Ashley Pultorak for the hattrick putting the Blue Devils up 3-1. In the second half, the Lady Monarchs defense clamped down and did not allow Duke to score while registering two goals for force the game into overtime. Sensenig tallied her second goal of the afternoon less than six minutes into the half, while junior Shannon Mobley managed to tie the game at 3-3 with 16:50 left in regulation.Neither team managed to find the back of the cage in the first 15 minute overtime forcing double overtime. Nichols posted the game-winner, her second of the season, to add to the Lady Monarch win column.
COMING UP: Old Dominion remains at home as the regular season comes down to its last two weekends. The Lady Monarchs will play in two of its final three CAA contests hosting last year's CAA runner-up, Northeastern, on Saturday, October 21st, and Hofstra, on Sunday, October 22nd.