Friends Select’s field hockey team fought hard throughout the 2019 season. Gaining eight new freshmen and an eighth grader Katie Fitzpatrick (‘24) to replace the nine players we lost last year, we had a very young team this season. 

During preseason, we spent time building team chemistry and nailing our basic field hockey skills. As pre-season flowed into our first official practices and games, the team improved day by day and moved onto mastering new skills like the reverse chip and air dribbling, which were popular among the whole group. 

Our first game of the season ended in a difficult overtime tie, which made us very “hungry” (the teams catchphrase and rallying cry the rest of the season.) Next, we played a great game against Franklintown which resulted in a 10-0 win. We faced some challenges in our first league games of the season; we fought hard through some tough loses after our first league win against Friends’ Central, and finished the season with a 1-1 tie in overtime against George School, which earned us the number two seed in the Quaker Cup tournament. We defeated Friends’ Central in our first game in the Quaker Cup, but suffered a tough loss against George School in the championship. 

Our scoring leaders were Sofia Parravicini ‘23 (12 goals) and Mia Cohen ‘21 (11 goals). Our assist leaders were Sofia Parravicini (4 assists), Mia Cohen (3 assists), and Sarah Goldberg ‘21 (3 assists). We finished the season 6-7-2 overall and 2-4-1 in league play. Our goalies, Lucy Kelley ‘22 and Ava Greenbaum ‘23, made incredible progress over the course of the season. Ava, brand new to field hockey, embraced the role gladly. Lucy, recovering from a knee injury, worked her way back to full strength and played some very impressive games, such as our mid-season matchup against Moorestown Friends. 

Five of our players were honored at the sports awards ceremony at the end of the season. Mia Cohen and Hannah Feinberg ‘20 were given the sportsmanship award; Lucy Kelley, the most improved player award; Madison Schuer ‘21 , the most dedicated player award; and Margot Schneider ‘22, the most outstanding player award. 

Although we needed to learn some tough lessons about being aggressive and keeping stamina in close games, throughout the season we pushed through the many obstacles we faced. We ran a timed mile each Monday and worked on keeping our sticks down until our backs were on the verge of giving out. By the end of the season, we built up a great team bond and mastered many of the concepts we initially struggled with. We’d like to give a special shoutout to our only senior and our block tackle queen, Hannah, and our three coaches, Emily Gallagher, Andrea Meyers, and Mariko Cummings. Thank you to all the coaches and players for an amazing season!