St. Joe’s sticks it to field hockey

The Hawks shut out the Owls, 4-0, in Friday’s Atlantic Ten Conference opener. Temple is now 4-10 overall.

A week off might be exactly what coach Amanda Janney and the field hockey team need.

After the Owls (4-10) shut out Penn in their last contest, they found the goose egg beside their name on the scoreboard. Temple dropped last Friday’s Atlantic Ten Conference opener to Saint Joseph’s, 4-0. The Owls now have a week off to try and solve the equation of how to consistently win.

“Any loss is disappointing, but a conference game hurts even worse,” junior forward Taryn Nichols said. “We were so pumped and excited for the game in the locker room, but we just couldn’t translate it into our playing. We have our moments of great hockey. We just need to put it together for a full 70 minutes, and that’s how the wins come.”

Temple never got off on the right foot, as the defense proved unprepared for the Hawks’ revamped attack.

Junior goalkeeper Sarah Dalrymple had a season high nine saves on 13 St. Joe’s shots, but the Hawks eventually piled up on her in the first half. St. Joe’s junior forward Jen Wrublesky redirected a shot from the point into the cage. St. Joe’s (3-7) found its passing game by dissecting the Owls’ defense. St. Joe’s sophomore forward Ellen Rowe netted the second goal of the game from a one-time pass across the circle. A little less than four minutes later, senior forward/midfielder Kellie Walter found herself on the scoresheet by banging in a loose ball. The Hawks heavily outshot the Owls in the first half, 11-3. The Owls drew three penalty corners, their one bright spot.

The second half proved to be more of the same, as the Hawks’ pressure kept Temple on its heels. St. Joe’s senior midfielder Jenn Schultz provided the final stroke with a goal at the 45-minute mark. The Owls did look better in the second half with six shots and two forced corners.

“Our loss yesterday definitely makes the road to an A-10 Championship a little more difficult,” senior captain Charise Young said. “We have over a week until our next game, which allows us to really focus and make changes. Our practices leading up to that game need to be at a greater intensity level to ensure our best performance next Sunday.”

The Owls need to figure out how to win consistently if they want to see the postseason. Nichols said she knows Janney will run tough practices during the next week at Geasey Field.

“This upcoming weekend is huge for us, and this week at practice we have to test our weaknesses to get better and really focus in on corner execution,” Nichols said. “That’s always one of our strengths. We’re such a close group of friends and teammates that if we stay together and practice hard, we can come out and win this weekend.”

The Owls’ next test comes against Massachusetts at noon Sunday, Oct. 18 at Geasey Field.

Christian Audesirk can be reached at christian.audesirk@temple.edu.

Fall coaches: Should they stay or go?

As we say goodbye to fall sports, it’s time to evaluate the effectiveness of some of the Owls’ leading men and women. Will they be back in 2009, or will they get the pink slip?

Al Golden,
Football
You can’t complain too much about the guy who brought the Owls out of the football graveyard in 2007. Last year, the team went 4-8, a much-needed step forward from previous seasons. But 2008 has been filled with frustration. Five losses have been decided by less than a touchdown, and three times the Owls lost on the final play. The team has lacked discipline and a knockout blow in late-game situations, and that is a direct reflection on Golden. But he’s got plenty of job security and amost likely, a prosperous tenure left here on North Broad Street.
Verdict: Al’s got some work to do, but Temple football needs its passionate leader.

David Jones,
Women’s soccer
In six years of work, Jones has had subpar results. The Owls haven’t even sniffed the postseason, and for a program that began in 1991, there hasn’t been much progress to speak of at all. This year, the Cherry and White went 4-11-4 and were shutout nine times. Will a fresh face bring new life to the women’s soccer team? Probably not, but the players don’t appear to be responding to what Jones has to offer.
Verdict: Jones and coaches had ample time to mold the program into form, but they apparently aren’t much of sculptors.

David MacWilliams,
Men’s soccer
Last season, the Owls flopped to a 5-11-2 finish and lacked much of an offensive threat. This season has been sort of a fairy-tale story. The emergence of junior forward J.T. Noone and junior midfielder Mike Puppolo as scorers led to a trip back to the Atlantic Ten Conference Tournament for the first time in four years. MacWilliams did a great job of coaching down the stretch, as he led the Owls to a 6-1-2 conference record. The combination of MacWilliams and the Owls could be perched atop the A-10 for the next few years.
Verdict: At least there is one successful D-Mac in Philadelphia. 2009 will be a big year for the men’s soccer team.

Bob Bertucci,
Volleyball
The 14-year veteran coach has been nothing short of exceptional for the Owls. He has engineered nine 20-plus win seasons and in 2002, reached the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament. Nothing surprises or fazes Bertucci, who has been described as an “architect of the game.” With that being said, it makes it harder to believe he can’t solve the riddle of the A-10 West. In the last three seasons, the Owls have gone 0-9 against the “Big 3” of Saint Louis, Dayton and Xavier. Are his tactics getting stale, or are the Cherry and White simply overmatched? He and his team have a shot at redemption in the A-10 Tournament this weekend.
Verdict: Bertucci is an immobile figure for the volleyball team and will surely be back in 2009.

Amanda Janney,
Field hockey
This is certainly an interesting examination. Janney has done a remarkable job getting her team in position for the playoffs the last four years. But, that’s where the problems began. The last two seasons, the Owls have been the higher seed in their opening round match-up and ultimately lost. She also hasn’t tasted the spoils of an elusive A-10 Championship, something that has avoided the Owls since 1994. She deserves credit for her superb winning percentage, but another postseason hiccup could be her last.
Verdict: Janney’s not going anywhere just yet. All these playoff losses have to add up at some point.

Overall
While some teams are coming off successful fall 2008 campaigns, others were not so fortunate. Those in the latter grouping may use this offseason to shop around for new coaches. As a whole, Temple Athletics has been impressive, with three of the above mentioned coaches reaching postseason play. For them, 2009 will be about taking that next step and bringing home some hardware.

Anthony Stipa can be reached at anthony.stipa@temple.edu.

Championship bid ends on controversial OT goal

Not even déjà vu works like this.

For the fifth straight year, the field hockey team’s season ended in the Atlantic Ten Conference semifinals. Last Friday, the Owls lost to Richmond, 4-3, in an overtime shocker at Geasey Field.
Despite a remarkable late-game comeback, in which the Owls netted two goals in the final three minutes, their effort was rendered null by a controversial goal.

“Our defender made a great tackle,” coach Amanda Janney said. “She had her stick on the ball, and their forward ran her over, pushed her down, knocked her stick out of the way and proceeded to dribble through and hit the ball [into the net].”

With 2:32 left in regulation, Owls junior forward Dannah Brehm overwhelmed a back-pedaling Spider defense, scooped up the loose ball and sidestepped past Richmond senior goalkeeper Becca Weaver before tapping in the goal.

The pendulum continued to swing further in the Owls’ direction as a corner call was awarded with two minutes to play. The centering pass by junior forward Charise Young was botched, but the Owls quickly got back in position. Junior forward Mandi Ruth came up with the ball and slammed it into the back of the net to tie the game at 3-3.

“Momentum,” senior defender Mary Catherine Kinneman said. “We finally had them on their heels, and we were finally pressing them in. We were able to capitalize on a couple mistakes that they made.”
An explosion of emotion rippled through Owls’ players and fans alike, and when the horn sounded ending 70 minutes of play, they geared up for 15 more.

Unfortunately, the Spiders would only need 53 seconds. Overtime consists of six-on-six play and a goalie for each team. That left plenty of open field for Richmond junior forward Sarah Blythe-Wood to score the game-winning goal.

Janney believed there was foul play involved, and the “no-call” resulted in a disadvantage for her team.
“I felt like it was a foul against them, and we should have been getting a free hit instead of them allowing the goal to happen,” Janney said. “They were calling fouls like that earlier in the game, so I felt it was a little inconsistent.”

Regardless of the drama, the Owls were proud of the way they battled back.

“It was really important to me that as a team we didn’t give up, and I think that’s kind of been the theme of our whole season,” Kinneman said. “We’ve had some rough breaks, and we really haven’t given up.”

The game started like many others, with an ebb and flow between each team’s attacks. Then the fireworks began, as Spiders sniper Megan Thompson knocked home a goal at the 22:28 mark in the first half.

Another tally just minutes later had Owls fans reeling, and the scoreboard reading 2-0 in favor of the visitors. The Spiders continued to move the ball well in the first half and kept the Owls at bay with more pressure. The Cherry and White offense stalled due to poor stick-to-stick passing and the solid defensive fortification surrounding Weaver.

In the second half, both sides exchanged blows. First it was Brehm, who made a phenomenal stick-handling deke to get into the scoring circle and pounded a shot into the goal.

Next, it was Thompson who struck again, this time with 16:01 to play. The junior forward devilishly slipped behind the Owls’ defense for an easy cherry-picker goal. With the game now 3-1, it would take an error by the Spiders’ defenders and a heads-up play by Brehm to trim the lead.

The loss means the Cherry and White will finish their season 8-12 and under .500 for the first time in Janney’s four years at Temple. But the team rallied down the stretch to make a postseason game even possible.

“We’ve come a long way this season,” Janney said. “We’ve gotten better every game, which makes us happy as a coaching staff that they have really improved.”

Anthony Stipa can be reached at anthony.stipa@temple.edu.

Field Hockey team looks to defend A-10 title

After winning the Atlantic Ten Conference regular season championship last season, the field hockey team expected to go into this season favored to repeat.

They were wrong.

The Owls, who finished 15-6 overall and 6-1 in the A-10 last season, were picked to finish second in the A-10 standings in a vote by the league’s coaches.

While the other coaches may feel content with the vote, Temple is not. Entering her fourth season as the
team’s coach, Amanda Janney was not very pleased with the preseason prognostications.

“We are not happy that we’re second, but we need to have a chance to play [Massachusetts] to prove otherwise,” she said. “It gives us extra motivation to defend the regular season championship.”

The team will also need to build off last season’s results, as it will be without the services of Alli Lokey, the A-10 offensive player of the year, and Ashley Bird, the conference’s defensive player of the year. Both graduated after stellar careers at Temple.

As for this year, according to Janney, it’s going to be a collective team effort that will rely heavily on veteran leadership.

“[We have] four strong seniors who won a lot of awards, as well as the other upperclassmen,” she said. “The team looks good right now.” Two veteran leaders on the team are senior goalkeeper Erin Hanshue, a 2007 A-10 honorable mention, and junior forward Dannah Brehm, an A-10 first team selection last season.

But they just factor into the entire equation that is the field hockey team.

With high expectations and a focus on winning their first A-10 Championship since 1994, every game is
important for Janney and her team.

“It’s important that we step up on every game and play our best,” she said. “We need to be really focused on every game like it’s the A-10 Championship.”

This focus began when Janney took over the reigns in 2005. Under her guidance, the Owls had their first winning season since 1992 and made the A-10 tournament for three consecutive seasons. This season, that very tournament will be hosted by the Owls, which just serves as extra determination to bring home the crown.

“Having all of our fans there, a lot of positives are in place, [but] everyone needs to contribute to get what we want,” Janney said.

The Owls will open the season at home with a non-conference game versus Lehigh University on Aug. 30
at Geasey Field.

“The team is going to play hard. It doesn’t matter what conference [it’s] from.”

Nick Hollenstein can be reached at n.hollenstein@temple.edu.