Field Hockey
2008 Season Preview

last updated 08/25/08

With experience all over the turf, the Kutztown University field hockey team plans to contend for a championship this season.

After a 17-5 overall finish and an 11-2 Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference record in 2007, the Golden Bears return 15 letterwinners and seven starters from last season.

Offensive standouts Kelley Healey (sr. Toms River, N.J./Toms River North), Lyndsay Butler (sr. Annandale, N.J./Summit) and Anne Waapu (so. Hastings, NEW ZEALAND) return for 29th-year head coach Betty Wesner, who won the 2007 PSAC Coach of the Year and NFHCA South Region Coach of the Year awards. Wesner’s team has set high goals for the Golden Bears in 2008, which include competing in the conference final, as well receiving a bid to the NCAA Division II Final Four.

“We expect to take our team a few steps higher than last year,” she said. “I see these goals as very attainable.”

In the PSAC preseason poll, KU was selected to finish second in the Eastern Division behind last season’s conference champion Bloomsburg.

Named to the ESPN the Magazine’s Academic All-America second team and the PSAC’s Fall Academic Top 10 list, Healey led the Golden Bears in 2007 with 17 goals and 14 assists for a total of 48 points. Healey was named to the first team in the PSAC and the NFHCA All-America in 2007 after earning second team selections in 2005 and 2006. In her three years at KU, Healey, a tri-captain, has frustrated opposing goalkeepers, scoring 52 goals and 27 assists.

She will be joined up front by senior Butler, who came alive offensively last season, scoring 10 goals and notching eight assists. She, like Healey, started in all 22 games for KU.

Supporting the right side, junior Carrie Healey (jr. Toms River, N.J./Toms River North) will return after playing in 22 games and starting in six. She finished with 20 points, scoring eight goals and assisting on four others.

The left side features the only question mark in the front as newcomer Julie Rosenkaimer (fr. Lansdale/North Penn) will compete with redshirt-sophomore Lauren Solley (so. Oley Valley/Oley Valley) for playing time. Solley played in three games last season before suffering a season-ending injury.

Sophomore Abbey Sheeler (so. Fleetwood/Brandywine Heights) will continue to provide depth off the bench for KU after playing in 19 games last season. She finished with four goals and two assists.

The four starting forwards will not be the only Golden Bears expected to score.

Wesner is looking to her midfield to make major contributions this season — both offensively and defensively.

Waapu, Jennifer Belfatti (sr. Hatfield/Lansdale Catholic) and Whitney Stum (sr. Landisburg/West Perry) will lead the charge in the midfield. Waapu was third on the team in scoring as a redshirt-freshman last season, scoring 12 goals and assisting on two. Her powerful shot took the conference by storm last season, and Wesner hopes to have that same type of scoring threat this season.

”Our midfield shows strength offensively and defensively,” Wesner said. “I look to them as being a very offensive group, as well as making major contributions on penalty corners.”

Belfatti, who was a first team All-PSAC selection and a member of the NFHCA All-America second team, scored two goals, including a game-winner, last season.

Stum played in all 22 games, scoring two goals — including a game-winner — and recording an assist.

Waapu, Belfatti and Stum are interchangeable between the midfield and defensive positions, as are returning letterwinners Holly Hubbard (sr. Etters/Red Land), Courtney Geibel (sr. Mifflintown/Juniata), Kristin Snyder (sr. Dalton/Lackawanna Trail), Madison Weary (jr. Palmyra/Palmyra), Courtney Zook (so. Oley/Oley Valley) and Jacque Healey (so. Toms River, N.J./Toms River North).

Hubbard, a senior and tri-captain with Geibel and Healey, played in nine games as a junior, scoring a goal and a assist for KU. She missed part of the 2007 with an illness.

Geibel led the Golden Bears with five defensive saves last season, anchoring a defense that held opponents to 1.39 goals per game. KU recorded six shutouts last season. Snyder made two defensive saves in 21 starts in 2007.

The Golden Bears will lack experience at the goalkeeper position with the loss of graduated starter Sam Flowers. Abby Rhone (fr. Chambersburg/Chambersburg), Emily Falko (fr. Catasauqua/Catasauqua) and walk-on Bethann Foreman (fr. Oley Valley/Oley Valley) will compete against sophomore Melissa Watson (so. Virginia Beach, Va./Ocean Lakes) for the starting job. Watson, in 105 minutes last season, did not allow a goal, making nine saves and recording a win.

All four keepers will receive help from Wesner’s assistant goalkeeper coach Trista (Hershey) Oxenreider, who played for the Golden Bears from 2003-06. In her senior season, she posted a 1.14 goals against average and was named All-America.

Greta Mountain (fr. Fleetwood/Fleetwood) and Kelly Simmons (fr. Douglassville/Daniel Boone), who played with KU in the spring, will provide depth for the Golden Bears, along with the 11 newcomers — three signees and nine walk-ons.

Katie Colburn (fr. Hanover/South Western), who was originally recruited by Wesner but competed for the track and field teams last season, is included on the list of walk-ons.

The Golden Bears will compete in the newly created Eastern Division of the PSAC after C.W. Post and Mercyhurst entered the conference. The East includes Bloomsburg, East Stroudsburg, Millersville, C.W. Post and Mansfield. KU will still play teams from the West, who the Golden Bears could face in the PSAC postseason tournament.

“It’s important to keep the West on my schedule,” Wesner said. “That way, there will not be any surprises when the playoffs come around.”

The Golden Bears open the season at home against East Stroudsburg at 7 p.m. Sept. 3.