The football team is off to an underwhelming start (blown out by U.Conn??!) and the men’s soccer team has fallen to 4-3. Where’s the sports excitement this season for the Cavaliers? Try field hockey. The team (6-1) has been ranked as high as No. 8, and though it dropped its first game of the season on September 10, it has two shutouts and has outscored its opponents 26-8.
“Of course our ultimate program goal is to win a national championship,” says head coach Michele Madison. She hasn’t done that yet, but unlike any other coach, she has taken three separate teams—Temple, Michigan State and Virginia—to the NCAA tournament. Even though a championship “is what we recruit for and what we prepare for every day,” Madison tries “to keep the players in the moment one day at a time, one practice at a time, and one game at a time. If we are not laughing on the field, then something
is wrong.”
.jpg) Led by Inge Kaars Sijpesteijn, UVA field hockey’s first All-American since 1998, the team is off to a 6-1 start and has earned a Top 10 ranking. |
Of course, it’s easier for Madison to laugh in her third year at UVA. Players know her system, derived from over two decades of coaching that includes Olympic teams and the first World Cup team to win a bronze.
Madison’s staff recruited speed with two former Team USA players, Paige Selenski and Michelle Vitesse. Vitesse has already been named a Rookie of the Week by womensfieldhockey.com. The freshmen duo lead in scoring along with junior Traci Ragukas, UVA’s first ever National Rookie Team member. This year’s team also includes its first All-American since 1998, Inge Kaars Sijpesteijn. They helped the Cavaliers to 60 shots on goals versus their adversaries’ 10.
Madison considers attitude the team’s biggest strength. “The personality of this group exudes success. They practice hard, they play hard, and they ask questions. They really want to get the systems right and take responsibility.”
But that responsibility comes with “a brutal schedule.” UVA knocked off perennial powerhouse Old Dominion early before losing in overtime to No. 9 James Madison. The second half of the Cavaliers’ season includes Maryland, Wake Forest, and North Carolina, who have collectively won seven national championships in the last 10 years.
Perhaps the only thing Madison can ask for is more fans. She wishes “more kids would come to the games because they would really like it, and it is free!” The next home game is Thursday, September 18, against VCU.
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