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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Rookie Field Hockey Coach Gets Debut Win,
St. Margaret’s Tops Steward in Invitational Tourney
Making your coaching debut on the cusp of a championship season, is not easy. Then again St. Margaret’s varsity field hockey coach Kate Coghlan, a native of East Longmeadow, Massachussets, never figured it would be.
Four years ago, Coghlan was a freshman on Drew University’s varsity field hockey team in New Jersey. This year, Coghlan finds herself in a new role as coach but remains passionate about her sport. "I love field hockey, playing and coaching. It’s such a privilege for me to work with Coach Jo Jo [McKinley], Coach [Kate] Taylor, and the great group of girls that we have on this year’s team," says Coghlan.
(l. to r.) Allison Wasserman, Sara Neman, and Sara Shelton quench their thirst as the trio focuses on the second half of Saturday's tournament championship game versus Steward in Richmond.
"What last year’s team accomplished [L.I.S. regular season and tournament championships] is not something we can really afford to burden ourselves with right now. We have our own set of priorities and our own set of goals for this year. Don’t get me wrong, a couple of our goals mirror last year but we can’t be too concerned about that this early in the season," adds Coghlan.
In their first game since last year’s team won the L.I.S. tournament last November, the new look Scotties proved they are capable of similar results. At the Steward Invitational Tournament, held last Saturday, September 11th, in Richmond,.SMS drew St. Gertrude’s as its first round opponent. One minute after substituting into the game, junior Sara Shelton, of Virginia Beach, scored to give the Scotties an early 1-0 advantage. St. Gertrude’s answered back with a goal just prior to halftime that deadlocked the teams at 1-1. Midway through the second half, Shelton answered back scoring her second goal of the game which put the Scotties ahead. Much to the credit of a blistering defensive surge late in the second half, Shelton’s go-ahead goal proved the 2-1 game winner for the Scotties.
SMS faced tournament host Steward in the tournament championship game that afternoon. Steward, who defeated St. Catherine’s junior varsity squad 4-1 in the other tournament semifinal game, began their second match super aggressive appearing destined to claim the tournament title. Junior midfielder Carol Combs, of Statesboro, GA, laid the pressure on Steward early with a beautiful goal that gave SMS a 1-0 halftime lead. Steward responded in the second half to force a 1-1 end-of-regulation tie that forced a ten-minute "sudden death" overtime.
(l. to r.) Ashley Colen and Katie Farmer sit together at halftime. Katie, of Millers Tavern, would go on to hit the game winner in overtime.
Five and a half minutes into the overtime period, a loose-ball scramble forced Steward’s goalie to fall on the ball which incurred a penalty stroke against Steward. A veteran of last year’s championship team, senior Katie Farmer stepped up to take the potential game-winning shot. Katie did it, but it required thirty seconds of intense focus to put the game-winner past Steward’s goalie high and left. "It takes a little nerves, a lot of confidence. That’s really it," said Katie following Saturday’s win. "Katie was so calm and focused that I knew it was going to be a good shot before she connected," recalled Coghlan.
On her team’s prowess through the first two games of the 1999 season Coach Coghlan commented, "We hadn’t practiced penalty strokes yet so there was a little indecision as to who we wanted to take the shot so Katie really surprised us by stepping up like that. The girls, all nineteen of them, played so well today. You have to credit them for playing like they did."
SMS players named to Saturday’s all-tournament team include (hometown in parentheses): Carol Combs, midfielder (Statesboro, GA), Mary Emery, defenseman (Warsaw), Britt Faulkner, midfielder (White Stone), and forward Sara Shelton (Virginia Beach).
