Field Hockey | August 26, 2015

PHILADELPHIA - The La Salle field hockey team had a banner season last fall, winning 11 games and setting program records Atlantic 10 wins. But one thing was missing from the 2014 campaign: a trip to the Atlantic 10 Tournament.

The Explorers, who return eight starters from last year's 11-7 (5-3 Atlantic 10) team, plan on rectifying that this season.

"Our main goal is to make A-10s," sophomore Kendall Kreider said. "Obviously we want to win A-10s but we have to make sure we win all of our [regular season] A-10 games."

"Our team goals are the same as they are every year," senior Juliana Carfagno said. "Making the A-10 playoffs and winning A-10s."

Carfagno, Kreider (Atlantic 10 All-Rookie team pick in 2014) and several other key cogs return for seventh-year head coach Michelle Marks Salmi, who became the program's winningest coach last season. Salmi welcomes back All-Atlantic 10 performer Devin Muracco and another A-10 All-Rookie team selection, Eileen Dzwill, to a team that just narrowly missed out on the postseason last year by one game.

"We've been doing a nice job of keeping the urgency, keeping the intensity up during practice," Salmi said.

In addition to Carfagno, who has started 37 games in her career and is a co-captain, the senior class of Emily Vasey and Jenica Miller will be looked to provide leadership. Vasey started 17 games a year ago, scoring five points from the midfield, while Miller started the first 10 games on defense for the Explorers last fall.

Jamie Schlotterer, a graduate transfer from UConn where she won two straight national championships, is a valued newcomer who is no stranger to success.

"She has the mentality of being a national champion and playing at that high level," Salmi said. "She will be a great contributor to our program," Salmi said.

In the junior class, Muracco was named to the preseason All-Atlantic 10 team after scoring seven goals and dishing three assists to tie Kreider for the team lead in scoring with 17 points. Co-captain Abbey Lawrence started 14 games last year while goalkeeper Rachel Hartman started all 18 games and led the conference in save percentage (.810) and had a 1.76 goals against average. Georgia Harris and Gina Smith are both talented upperclassmen who should see increased roles this fall.

The deep sophomore class is paced by Kreider (team-high 17 points) and Dzwill (18 starts on defense) but provided plenty of minutes in 2014. Sophie Lozowski started all 18 games, scoring six points, while Jess Hoffman, April Stein, Summer Pierson, Julia Sproch and Katie O'Grady had an impact off the bench last season. Brittany Paschall backed Hartman up and appeared in two games. All are vying for increased roles for La Salle this year.

A trio of freshmen (Logan Oh, Megan Kida, Mackenzie Karcher), is also pushing the upperclassmen for playing time.

"All three have come from high quality high school and club teams," Salmi said. "You can't even tell they are freshmen. They have kept up with the intensity and are doing a really nice job."

The Explorers open up their season on Friday with a neutral site game at UMass Lowell against Maine. The home opener is September 6 versus Ball State and A-10 play begins on September 18 vs. Davidson.