By Christopher Tremblay

The Norwood field hockey coaching staff has been pleasantly surprised thus far through the early stages of the season after graduating a rather big class from last year’s team. According to Coach Alison Doliner, the girls have been working hard and coming together as a team.

The Mustangs have been playing .500 field hockey at press time, but it has been a roller coaster of a season. Doliner is looking for the squad to put things together and show some consistency. Norwood opened the fall with a tie to Hopkinton, then rattled off three quality wins against Ashland, Medfield, and Holliston, before dropping the next three to Westwood, Walpole, and Dover-Sherborn. The Mustangs then rebounded with a win over Medway. All the contests, with the exception to the Walpole loss, have been one or two-point games.

“It’s been a real up and down season so far,” Doliner said. “We are still awaiting a home game as our new turf has been delayed so all of our games have been on the road so far. With the second half of the season and a home schedule that favors us, I am hoping that we’ll be more consistent as a team.”

Although the Mustangs have been playing on the road game after game, the coach doesn’t believe that it has really affected them.

“I don’t think that it has hurt us,” Doliner said. “Primarily it has just been tough for us to get into a groove, but it’ll be nice to eventually play at home.”

Entering the season, the coach was not too sure what to expect from this year’s squad. Despite graduating a large number of seniors, the Mustangs did have six freshman on the varsity roster last fall; all of whom contributed one way or another. 

“So far we’ve been getting what we expected from the starters while the team has been getting use to one another,” Doliner said. “Good things have happened over the first half of the season and the girls are working together in practice in addition to focusing on the area’s needed.”

Leading the Mustangs onto the field this fall are co-captains Meredith Cannon (center back) and Abby Lee (forward). Senior forward Leanne Saad and defender Jenna Burge have also made their presence known, but it has been senior Caroline Forest who has made the biggest impact playing on the forward line. The senior possesses so much athleticism on the field and doesn’t back down to anyone.

Guarding the goal from the opposition is sophomore Ava O’Neil. Last fall she saw time sparingly, but this season the position is hers in a full time capacity. The second-year player has been absolutely lights out for the Mustangs so far, and without her, Norwood could possibly be in big trouble. During the Walpole loss, she was still was able to turn aside 27 Rebel shots. 

Another sophomore, Emily Stacorcia, has stepped up in the center forward position. Her hand and eye coordination along with her speed have truly taken off this season. 

Junior Lindsay Rogers, a defensive player last year, has made the move to the center midfield position this year filling a vacancy that was left open.

“She [Rogers] did a ton of work in the off season to improve her game,” Doliner said. “This year, we had a need and after seeing Lindsay in pre-season we figured that we’d move her up to the offense. She is one of those individuals that wants to do more, and she can control both the offensive and defensive end if needed.”

Last season, the Mustangs were able to defeat Marblehead 2-0 in the first round of the tournament before falling 1-0 to Westwood, the eventual Division 2 State Champion. Norwood would like to find themselves in the upper echelon of the Tri-Valley League and once again venture into the State Tournament.

“We hope to be toward the top of the TVL; each game is up for grabs as there is no one dominant team in the league,” the Norwood Coach said. “Seeing the teams for the second time around at home we should be able to secure some wins to get us where we want to be.”

Not wanting to be a one and done in the tournament again, Norwood has continued to try and schedule tougher non-league games so that the girls get to see the type of competition they’d be up against in the playoffs.