The Virginia field hockey team will hit the road this weekend, traveling to University Park, Pa. to take on Iowa and Penn State.
These non-conference foes will be a change of pace for the Cavaliers (10-3, 1-1 ACC) as they make their second road trip to battle ranked opponents. The Cavaliers will miss the contributions of freshman midfielder Paige Selenski, who is currently competing with the Junior National Team in the Pan American Junior Championship tournament in Mexico City. She was named National Rookie of the Week Monday by womensfieldhockey.com for her performances against Richmond and Maryland last week. Selenski’s team-high 13 goals this season are good enough to tie her for third in the ACC, usually considered the best conference in the country. Virginia coach Michele Madison noted, though, that the team has other players that are likely to make strong contributions this weekend.
“Paige is improving every day,” coach Michele Madison said, but “it’s not just Paige; it’s [junior forward] Traci [Ragukas], [junior forward] Lauren Elstein and [sophomore forward] Kaitlyn [Hiltz].”
The Cavaliers will have to rely on their experience and depth to carry them through the weekend since they do not have Selenski’s aid. Nine Cavaliers other than Selinski have scored this season, and Ragukas and senior midfielder Inge Kaars Sijpesteijn are tied for second on the team with seven goals apiece.
The Cavaliers will first battle No. 5 Iowa (10-2, 2-0 Big Ten) tomorrow in a competitive matchup. Iowa’s only two losses this season have come at the hands of Wake Forest and Duke, both of whom play in the ACC. Virginia will clash with both of these schools later this season.
The two teams share several coaching links. Madison served as an assistant coach at Iowa from 1982-89; the Hawkeyes advanced to four NCAA semifinals during her time with the team and won their first national title in 1986. Iowa assistant coach Meridith Thorpe, meanwhile, had a successful field hockey career at Virginia from 1995-98. Thorpe, a four-time All-American, became the seventh player in the history of Division I intercollegiate field hockey to achieve the 100-goal mark and is still the all-time leader in goals and points at Virginia and in the ACC. Additionally, Thorpe led the team to its only two national semifinal appearances in 1997 and 1998, was named Virginia’s Female Athlete of the Year in 1997 and was named to the ACC 50th Anniversary Team in 2002. She served as an assistant coach for six years at Virginia.
Though Thorpe is widely considered the best player in Virginia field hockey history, tomorrow she will stand on the opposite sideline with the Hawkeyes, whom the Cavaliers defeated 1-0 in the 2006 NCAA Tournament in the teams’ last meeting.
Virginia will wrap up the weekend playing No. 13 Penn State (7-4, 1-0 Big Ten) Sunday. The Nittany Lions not only beat the Cavaliers in the first game of the 2007 season but also ended their season with a 3-2 win in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. The Cavaliers, however, are not intimidated by top-ranked opponents, having already faced many ranked opponents this season. Virginia is 1-1 outside of the commonwealth this season.
“We get prepared for every single game the way we get prepared for every game,” redshirt freshman midfielder Pien Hulsebosch said. “It’s not a difference between away and here. We are going to play our own game. I am pretty confident about it. We have a good team.”
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