HUNTINGDON, Pa.- With a large portion of its scoring having departed due to graduation, one would expect a drop off for the Juniata field hockey team in 2016. Top scorer and Landmark Offensive Player of the Year Sarah Bilheimer along with Alli Groft and Melissa Rutherford have all moved on. What will this year's team look like?
With an incoming class of eight freshmen, the one thing that the Eagles have now is speed and lots of it. "This is the fastest team we have ever had," said head coach Caroline Gillich. "We can take more risks this year because we can. We are a more offensive team because we have the ability to get back and recover if we need to." Gillich also commented that those freshmen will all be seeing significant playing time.
On the defensive side, JC does bring back experience with sophomore Rebecca Waite (Landenberg, Pa./Avon Grove) and senior Elise Onjack (Bangor, Pa./Bangor Area) totaling 35 starts last season. Also making a return is sophomore Meredith Shephard (Cazenovia, N.Y./Cazenovia) whose 2015 season was cut short because of injury.
"Our defense is more attacking," noted Gillich. "We have backs that are going to be taking shots and sending balls into the circle. Our defense will not change as much as our offense. There are basic tenets of our defense that will remain the same."
Experience also returns at the goalkeeper position where sophomore Kylie Edwards (Danville, Pa./Danville) will man the cage. As a freshman last year, Edwards started every game. In Landmark Conference play, she had a goals against average of .80 and led the league with a .844 save percentage. "She came in here the way you could only hope a player could come in," remarked Gillich.
The Eagles once again will have a daunting schedule with three teams that finished in the top 25 last season including conference foe Catholic at Knox Stadium on October 1. While Juniata won last year's regular season battle with the Cardinals 2-1 in overtime, CUA got the better of JC just four days later in the Landmark semifinals. The two teams dueled to scoreless tie with the contest coming down to penalty strokes which Catholic won 3-1.
Juniata travels to Ewing, N.J. on September 10 to play The College of New Jersey. The Lions advanced to the NCAA semifinals a year ago where they fell to eventual National Champion Middlebury. Messiah follows next on September 14. The Falcons have won the last two meetings with the Eagles by one goal.
"We play a lot of strong teams early," acknowledged Gillich. "It's all about pushing ourselves really hard in the beginning.
JC has a tough four game road stretch in September with contests at York (Pa.) (Sept.17), Washington and Jefferson (Sept. 20), Goucher (Sept.24), and Wesley (Sept. 25). The four games sandwich the home match against Catholic with road games at Keuka (Oct. 4), Drew (Oct. 8), and Susquehanna (Oct. 12).
The season kicks off on Thursday as Juniata hosts Alvernia. Game time from Knox will be at 4:00 p.m.
