Earlier this fall, I wrote about how Pennsylvania is a hotbed for field hockey. To defend that claim, I noted that, if you looked at the rosters of the Preseason Top Ten Division I field hockey teams, you’d find 54 Pennsylvanians, including 7 players from the greater Lehigh Valley area.
Well, I’m here to double-down on that claim.
If you look at the rosters of the teams that advanced to the Division I, II, and III NCAA Tournaments, you’ll find 31 players from the Lehigh Valley. There are six Lehigh Valley products playing in the DI tournament, 13 in the DII tournament, and 12 in the DIII tournament. They hail from Northwestern Lehigh (5), Parkland (4), Emmaus (3), Stroudsburg (3), Bangor (2), Liberty (2), Northampton (2), Easton (1), Northern Lehigh (1), Palisades (1), Palmerton (1), Pocono Mountain East (1), Quakertown (1) (I know, I know, Bucks County, but I’m counting it…), East Stroudsburg South (1), Pleasant Valley (1), Salisbury (1), and Saucon Valley (1).
As of 11/18, the DI tournament has advanced to the Final Four—with UNC, Saint Joseph’s, Northwestern, and Massachusetts still in the running for the national title. The semi-final round will take place on Friday, 11/22, to be followed by the championship game on Sunday, 11/24.
The first round of the tournament featured one of our hometown teams, Lafayette College, who received an automatic bid to the big dance after winning the Patriot League Championship in a thrilling OT victory over American University. It was the first time Lafayette has won the league title since 2012 and landed the Leopards a spot in the NFHCA’s Coaches’ Poll as the 20th seed in the Week 10 rankings on 11/12. Lafayette was matched up against an impressive Saint Joseph’s team (ranked #4 overall in the tournament). The Leopards put up an impressive fight—ultimately falling by a score of just 1-0.
Similarly in the DII tournament, the semi-finals will pick back up again on Friday, 11/22. Shippensburg, Kutztown, East Stroudsburg, and St. Anselm will battle for a chance to play for the Division II National Championship on Sunday, 11/24. If you tune into Friday’s matchups, you’ll have a chance to see Elaina Fragassi of Parkland playing for Shippensburg, Dakota Stiff from Pocono Mountain East and Sydney Frantz from Palmerton playing for East Stroudsburg, and Brinley Rex and Greenleigh McGehee from Northwestern Lehigh, Olivia Vaccari from Parkland, and Kiera Gallagher from Quakertown all playing for Kutztown.
As for the DIII tournament, Tufts, Williams, Salisbury, and Middlebury will compete on Friday, 11/22 for a spot in the finals on Sunday, 11/24.
At the high school level, the fall season wrapped up with Emmaus advancing to the PIAA 3A semi-final round, where they were ultimately knocked off by Villa Maria in overtime by a score of 2-1—surrendering the game-winning goal with only 17 seconds remaining the the first overtime period. The loss capped off another impressive season for the Hornets. The team went 25-2 (with their only losses in non-conference play to Penn Manor and Villa Maria) and earned EPC and District XI titles.
Southern Lehigh was matched up against Upper Perkiomen in the opening round of the 2A tournament. The Spartans fell by a score of 4-1. The 1A tournament featured Northwestern Lehigh and Palmerton—with Northwestern Lehigh falling in a heartbreaking double-overtime loss to Susquenita and Palmerton being defeated by Faith Christian by a score of 7-0.
As we have seen come to fruition this fall, many of our local high school teams have and will continue to pump out some of the nation’s top field hockey players at the Division I, II, and III levels. Not to mention, the Lehigh Valley is also home to an Olympian in Meredith Sholder and the 2023 National Umpire Award winner in Allie Mikelson. So, while the fall season may be coming to a close, be sure to continue to keep an eye and an ear out for the many talented field hockey players we have here in the Lehigh Valley.
There’s no telling how far they may go.
Division I NCAA Tournament Participants:
Fairfield: Gabby Gober (Northwestern Lehigh)
UNC: Melea Weber (Emmaus)
Maryland: Rayne Wright (Liberty)
Michigan: Abby Burnett (Emmaus), Aurora Gery (Parkland)
Vermont: Lauren Schellhamer (Northwestern Lehigh)
Division II NCAA Tournament Participants:
Shippensburg: Elaina Fragassi (Parkland)
ESU: Dakota Stiff, (Pocono Mountain East), Sydney Frantz (Palmerton)
Bloomsburg: Morgan Magditch (Palisades), Kendall Iasiello (Northampton), Raegan Iasiello (Northampton)
Assumption: Riley Tepper (Stroudsburg), Abigail Romano (Emmaus)
Kutztown: Brinley Rex (Northwestern Lehigh), Jocelyn Morgan (Easton), Olivia Vaccari (Parkland), Greenleigh McGehee (Northwestern Lehigh), Kiera Gallagher (Quakertown)
Division III NCAA Tournament Participants:
Babson: Ellie Powers (Liberty)
Ithaca: Emma Garver (Stroudsburg), Delaney Szwast (Northern Lehigh)
Shenandoah: Lily Kyvelos (Parkland)
Susquehanna: Casey Bruchak (Saucon Valley), Ella DeFazio (Salisbury), Reagan Heard (Bangor)
St Mary’s: Charlotte Horn (Northwestern Lehigh)
York: Billie Francis (Stroudsburg), Erin Maher (East Stroudsburg South)
Marywood: Megan Engle (Bangor)
Ohio Wesleyan: Mattison Hyland (Pleasant Valley)
The views expressed in this blog are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Astound Broadband or any other agency, organization, employer or company.
