SU Field Hockey Turning The Page And Looking Ahead
By Nick Luttrell
CitrusTV Field Hockey Beat Reporter
Fans were going wild as Charlotte De Vries riffled the ball into the back of the net to solidify SU’s throttling of North Carolina. On Friday night, Syracuse pulled off what hadn’t been done since November 22, 2015 – win against UNC.
Their 5-0 upset bid over the fifth-ranked team in the country helped them go from a good team to a great team. Leah Secondo, who called the game on Friday for the ACC Network, took note of how impressive SU’s win was.
“Ange Bradley has her team playing very well and the goal-scoring that they had, they were just beautiful,” Secondo said, “things that you sometimes can’t teach, you just have to have that sixth sense around the goal and Syracuse is doing that right now.”
Friday’s win over UNC was monumental for the SU Field Hockey program. When a fifth-year senior (Carolin Hoffmann) says that she’s never heard J.S. Coyne Stadium that loud, you know that the team is doing something right.
But much like any other team, that celebration only lasted 24 hours for the Orange. This week it is back to business. Head Coach Ange Bradley said that her team can’t get too excited about beating UNC.
“One win can’t define your season unless it’s the last win of the season,” Bradley said, “That game is behind us now… if we focus just on that one game we’ll be very mediocre and I think at the end of the season we’ll all be disappointed if that’s the highlight of our season.”
Even midfielder Carolin Hoffmann reiterated what Bradley must be preaching in the locker room – bring the energy no matter that opponent.
“It doesn’t matter, in the end, who it is we’re playing, it’s always the same. It doesn’t matter if it’s number one, if it’s number 15, if it’s number 86 or whatever, we’re always gonna bring the same motivation and same performance.”
Hoffmann was recently awarded the NFHCA Defensive Player of the Week for her performance in helping her team to shut out both #5 UNC and Columbia this past weekend. When Coach Bradley talks about her fifth-year senior, it’s obvious that Hoffmann is just the type of player that every field hockey team needs.
“I think she managed her lines and managed number one (Erin Matson) with the help of her teammates,” Bradley said, “We played really good team defense, and CJ (Carolin) was at the apex of that triangle and did a fantastic job.”
Despite the big win and impressive effort from her squad, Bradley still felt there was much room for improvement in order for her team to be a “national championship-caliber” team.
“Well we gotta keep winning games for sure,” Bradley said, “We have to work on our corner execution for sure, it needs a ton of work, it’s nowhere near where it needs to be.”
Executing on penalty corners won’t get any easier from SU going forward. The Orange’s main player who passes the ball out of the corners is SJ Quigley. The senior missed Sunday’s game with an apartment left leg injury. Coach Bradley refused to comment about Quigley’s status after the game. Without Quigley, Syracuse was 0/6 on penalty corners against Columbia on Sunday.
Syracuse will look to keep their six-game win streak alive on Friday at 6 p.m. as they’ll face off against #15 Wake Forest at J.S. Coyne Stadium. The game will be televised on ACC Network Extra or you can follow my Twitter for live updates throughout the game.
naluttre@syr.edu | @nickluttie
