Columbia Field Hockey Looks to Build on Last Year's Success

After taking a leap from one win in '09 to six wins last fall, there is one major question facing the up and coming Cougar field hockey squad.

What's the next step and are they ready to take it this season?

A year ago the Cougar girls got off to a slow start, going 1-8 through the first nine games. However, they closed the second half of the season with a 5-3-1 record, including their first playoff game in more than a decade. The 6-12-1 record represents a changing culture in the Cougar field hockey program.

However, following the girls' most successful season since the late nineties, the Cougars graduated 12 seniors - practically an entire team. So before the question of whether this team can take the next step is answered, they first have to fill the voids left.

Names like Samantha Storch, Maggie Richardson, Kerry Mahoney and Eva Woolridge are just a few of the girls that this year's CHS squad will be working to replace.

Co-captains Jane Mousseau and Sam Cohen both said that they are expecting to have as successful of a season as last fall, if not more so, despite turning over most of the team. Reigning Essex County field hockey coach of the year and newly inducted CHS Hall of Fame member, Maggie Singler, is excited for her third seasons at the helm, but understands that expectations have risen.

"I feel like there's a lot of excitement, but I feel like there's a little pressure on the girls," she said. "Last year we really had nothing to lose. This year they all know what it feels like. They've all been there."

The girls will be tested immediately, playing a challenging early schedule, featuring powerhouses Montclair and Oak Knoll, both before the late October playoff cutoff date. How they play in the first six to seven games, before they face Oak Knoll and Montclair in back-to-back games, will go very far in determining what kind of season the girls will have.

"If we can learn to pair up and support each other throughout the entire field, I think we can be successful," Singler said.

Singler said that she expects Mousseau to step up and be the team's go to scorer, and expects the team's offense overall to continue to be a strength. Mousseau was a part of last year's turnaround and says she is ready for the opportunity.

"The last two seasons I haven't accumulated that many [goals], but I've been right there down by the net," she said. "I'm ready to put goals in. Maggie [Singler] has a thing where she asks who wants it, and I want it."

Other expected contributors include junior Nadia Pelham-Lacey and Ila Vaughan possibly on the defensive side of the ball, Cohen at half back, Laura Marino at center-forward, Jane Hoffer who has some big shoes to fill replacing Richardson at left wing and Mary Grace Cobbs in net.

Cobbs has bigger task than anyone, taking over for the best keeper in the county of the last two seasons in Storch. But SIngler, Cohen and Mousseau all said it seems Cobbs has embraced the challenge.

"She has definitely impressed me. Sam left her huge shoes to fill, but she has been willing to step up and take on the challenge," Cohen said. "I think she is really going to be key."

Columbia gets its season started on Saturday at home against Millburn and then host the first ever home night game at Underhill for the Cougars against Arthur L. Johnson.

"I feel like we are pretty prepared. I think we are going to have a good season," Cohen said.