The freshmen have arrived! This year, Manual’s Junior Varsity field hockey team consists of 8 players pulled from the freshman field hockey team. So far, they have won 8 games with the new team. The freshman team just competed in the Stick Tournament where they went 1-2. The girls ended up losing to Assumption who went on to win the entire tournament. In a few short weeks, the JV team will be competing in the Pumpkin Tournament. The team believes they have a good chance of winning it all.

Katharine Stodghill (9), one of the many freshmen playing on both the JV and freshman teams, said, “I think that I feel pressured when we have two games back to back–one JV, one freshman–because we are expected to go all out in the JV game, and then come back for the freshman game and be leaders.” She alse added, however, that being on JV has pushed her to be a better player.  

“We have 8 freshmen that also play on the JV team. We do this to give the girls experience at a higher level. We only had 14 freshmen total this season so we wanted to give our more experienced freshmen the opportunity to challenge their skills at the next level while still being leaders on the freshmen team,” explained Manual’s field hockey coach, Brittany Tolan. 

Tolan believes that the JV team can make a good run in the upcoming Pumpkin Tournament, hopefully going in with a 3 seed ranking. While varsity players do have their eyes set on a state championship, they are currently focusing on finishing the regular season strong. Varsity has already come away with two tournament trophies; one coming from the Gateway Classic held in St. Louis and the second from the CAL Classic here in Louisville. 

Katie is a senior here at Manual and it is her second year on the RedEye staff. This year she is the assignment editor. Katie plans to attend University of Alabama next year and hopefully later become an ESPN sideline Reporter.