The Seton Hill University (SHU) women’s field hockey team has started their seventh season this year. This is a great achievement for the team. They have high ambition and great team spirit. With this, they will continue to lead themselves to victory.
Not only do these women demand victory on the field, but off the field as well. “Academics come first in my opinion,” said Whitney Nash, head coach.
By Michelle Polly
Staff Writer
The Seton Hill University (SHU) women’s field hockey team has started their seventh season this year. This is a great achievement for the team. They have high ambition and great team spirit. With this, they will continue to lead themselves to victory.
Not only do these women demand victory on the field, but off the field as well. “Academics come first in my opinion,” said Whitney Nash, head coach.
Anyone below a 3.0 has mandatory study hall three hours a week. Last semester they had a team GPA of 3.5 and 8 players on the dean’s list.
This is the first year the team will be competing in the NCAA division II and are looking for a bid into the NCAA Championship.
Coach Nash was a member of the first year women’s field hockey team at Seton Hill in 2003, which pushes her even more to help the program succeed.
“This is Coach Nash’s first year as head coach, so we all had to do a lot of adjusting. She is trying to build this team into a nationally competitive program so she expects us to work hard each and every day” said Krista Archembeau, a sophomore.
Nash plans to coach the fundamentals of the game and let the team build on those. “It’s easy to have the fundamentals down but knowing how and when to use them is another story,” said Nash.
So far they have made great improvements and picked up some big wins.
The team’s toughest challenge this year is said to be Bellarmine and Mercyhurst. “Both teams have similar coaching styles and formations. It’s like scrimmaging ourselves,” said Nash.
The players set many goals to strive toward, including preseason, mid season, and postseason goals. “We have a lot of goals—team, and individual. We all think setting goals are important but agree that meeting those goals are even more important,” said Anne Williams, a sophomore.
They are a relatively young team this year, graduating their three captains last year and starting six sophomores and two/three freshman. But they have come together as a team and are working hard to achieve the many goals, not only set by their coach but ones they set for themselves.
These women, as well as Coach Nash, are extremely dedicated and motivated and strive to succeed, and will continue to do so. “We believe and have confidence in ourselves” said Nash.