A rule change at the Christian Academy of Louisville (CAL) Classic field hockey tournament on Friday and Saturday meant only 7 members from each team would be allowed on the field at a time, instead of the usual 11.

The tournament committee put this rule change in place to give teams more experience playing with 7 members on a team which happens when a game is tied and goes into overtime. This was the first time a rule change like this happened at a tournament.

“In field hockey if a game is tied at the end of regulation, our first overtime period is sudden death 7 v 7 (6 field players and a goalie). Their post season tournament games often go to overtime and they have no ‘game experience’ of playing 7 v 7 so they thought it would be fun,” said Brittany Tolan, the varsity coach. “It allowed for coaches to get all players a good amount of playing time and experience. I think the format was great,” Tolan said.

The game time was changed to 20 minutes total instead of the usual 25 minute halves.

Because less people were on the field at a time, that meant more running for those who were playing, possibly affecting the outcome of the game.

Katharine Stodghill (10), a member of the one of the varsity teams, said she liked having less people on the field “because we had less subs and got more playing time.”

The varsity team won the championship in the top pool. JV was a runner-up in the 2nd pool, and the freshmen team finished in the top half in the 3rd pool.

“Overall a great weekend for Manual Field Hockey,” Tolan said.