The Virginia field hockey team’s 2015 season ended with a disappointing loss against a Duke team the Cavaliers had beaten twice that same year. Despite that, the No. 5 Cavaliers had a strong season highlighted with a No. 3 ranking in the NCAA Tournament and look to continue last year’s success.
The outlook for this season as a whole is positive, especially since the team only lost one player.
“I think everyone is really excited, to be honest,” junior midfielder Tara Vittese said. “I don’t think there are any nerves. We have a pretty experienced team and some pretty good first years thrown in the mix.”
Even with the familiarity the team has with each other, remaining attentive and working hard is emphasized regularly.
“We didn’t want to be complacent about it because it’s one player,” coach Michele Madison said.
Madison, Virginia’s most successful coach in program history, will be in her 11th year with the team this season. Even with the accolades of being in the National Field Hockey Coaches Association Hall of Fame, leading the Cavaliers to eight NCAA tournament berths and two national semifinals, Madison is still focused on improving.
“We didn’t achieve what we wanted to achieve last year, so we still have a lot of work to do,” she said.
With lots of praise for the team coming into the season, expectations are high. But a tough schedule looms large. The Cavaliers will play 14 of the top 20 NCAA ranked teams this season, highlighted by the four teams ranked ahead of them — North Carolina, Syracuse, Connecticut and Duke, respectively. Furthermore, four of the non-ranked teams Virginia will play have received votes to be ranked.
Asked whether there was any specific game she was looking forward to, Madison responded accordingly, “All of them — did you see that schedule? It’s brutal!”
While all of the games will be important, the players are focused on ACC games. The team was 3-3 last season in conference play, despite only having six losses on the year.
“We always love the Duke game, the ACC matchup, also UNC, and Syracuse,” senior midfielder Lucy Hyams said.
The goal for the season opener against Miami is to start strong and continue the work from the win in their exhibition game against American Aug. 18.
“Our first scrimmage against American went really well, and I think we built a lot from that,” Vittese said.
Hyams touched on the benefit of scrimmaging someone other than their teammates.
“It was really good to get some different play,” she said. “It was nice to play someone who had no idea what we were doing.”
The game against Miami, one of the non-ranked teams receiving a vote, will be against a familiar coach. Coach Inako Puzo was the associate head coach at Virginia before taking the Redhawks job. The Cavaliers beat Miami 1-0 last year in Ohio.
“We’re ready for the game. We’re ready to play someone else, see what works, what doesn’t work,” Madison said. “You want to get a game under your belt, another game, and keep growing”.
The team has been working hard in the preseason to prepare. The number of returning players allowed the team to immediately focus on specifics rather than the general style of play.
“They worked really hard for each other. We didn’t have to start with the ABCs, just jumped right in and could work on set plays,” Madison said. “We just have to earn everything we get.”
With a difficult opponent early, the Cavaliers will soon be tested in preparation for the rest of the season. Even with a tough schedule, the team has set a high bar for themselves.
“Making it further than we did last year is definitely a team goal. Making it to the final game is our biggest goal and personally my work rate is something I’m working on,” Vittese said.
With a talented roster flush with impact players, the outlook for the season is bright.
“If we play together as a unit, anything is possible,” Madison said.
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