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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Scotty Sports Corner
By Hollis Duncan
Coghlan, Hockey Team Peaking at Right Time
Tappahannock, VA (October 23, 2000) - As the St. Margaret's School varsity field hockey team walked off Gilchrist Field following its 1-0 loss to visitor Steward on October 19, Coach Kate Coghlan saw a bright side to the Scotties' defeat.
Forward Sara Newman of Whitestone receives instruction from Coach Coghlan during halftime. Sara and many of her senior teammates are leading this year's team heading in to next week's league playoffs.
"More than anything, this game showed us how much we have improved this season," she said, adding that when SMS played Steward in mid-September, they lost 6-0. But the second meeting was different. SMS dominated most of the game this time.
Until Steward's goal late in the second half, St. Margaret's had done everything but put the ball in the goal. The Scotties outplayed Steward on offense and defense and senior goalie Alison Wasserman had kept Steward scoreless until the Scotties' momentary defensive lapse.
"Those kinds of mistakes are the ones everyone needs to work on," Coghlan said. "Even though we are a great team, we have to stay focused for 60 minutes, especially with the playoffs coming up."
The Scotties (4-3-3 overall; 1-3 LIS) beat Northumberland 5-0 six days earlier on October 13. A battery of seniors - Carol Combs, Elizabeth LeBlanc, Sara Newman and Britton Faulkner - exploded for 4 out of the 5 goals on the afternoon, with the fifth contributed by junior Olivia Longest of Tapppahannock. After defeating Northumberland rather handily for the second time this season --the first a 6-0 shutout on September 29 -- the Scotties earned the 13th position in the Virginia Independent Schools Field Hockey Association state rankings.
"The last two weeks we have been playing the best we have all year," Coghlan said. "We are really showing signs of coming together as a team." Though the Scotties are no longer in contention for the LIS regular season title, Coghlan won't concede her team's chances at making a run in the LIS tournament.
"Since we have a lot of returning players who played in the [League of Independent Schools] tournament last year, we are sitting pretty at this point…playing great hockey, too."
"This team has the capability to go far," she added. "We are peaking at the right time, and anything can happen."
