Wahoo Wire

Courtesy of kelkat795.wordpress.com

The Virginia women’s field hockey team may be the most underappreciated squad at the University of Virginia. Michele Madison’s No. 6 Cavaliers have had another impressive start to their season, opening 4-0  for the second consecutive season with victories over three top 20 opponents thus far. The ladies of Turf Field boast some of the most explosive talent not only in the ACC, but in the nation as well. Sophomore midfielders Paige Selenski and Michele Vittese and freshman midfielder Tara Puffenberger competed in the Junior World Cup over the summer as members of the national team in which the United States took eighth place. Sophomore midfielder Inga Stockel also competed in the Junior World Cup, however, for her native country of Germany. So far this season all four players have made significant contributions to the team.

Stockel, one of the eight newcomers for the Cavaliers, has had a huge impact early in the season and looks to be a consistent contributor on offense throughout the season. The native of Germany scored the lone goals for the Cavaliers against No. 11 Penn State and No. 16 Old Dominion. Selenski, the 2008 National Rookie of the Year, has had a somewhat slow start to her sophomore campaign in which she has only scored one goal and tallied one assist. Vittese, one of two Cavaliers named to the Preseason All-ACC team the other being Selenski, has shown a return to her 2008  form before she suffered an injury in which she subsequently missed seven games. Puffenberger, similar to Stockel, has already made an immediate impact for the Cavaliers early in this young season scoring her first two collegiate goals in a 2-1 win against No. 20 Providence.

The victory against No. 20 Providence Monday gave head coach Michele Madison her 250th career win. Madison is in her 21st season as a head coach and is the only head coach in Division I history to take three different schools to the NCAA Tournament. This season, she could be coaching the most talented team she has ever had, however, despite the many accolades the team has received, the Cavaliers are still extremely young with only two seniors and five juniors.

Virginia graduated three of the program’s most decorated players last season. Amy Desjadon, Inge Kaars Sijpesteijn, and Lucy Meyers had been the backbone of the Cavaliers during their time in Charlottesville. The addition of junior goalkeeper Kim Kastuk and freshman back Charlotte van den Broek should help ease the pain of losing the three super seniors. Kastuk, a Boston University transfer, was the America East Goalkeeper of the Year last season, recording a conference high six shutouts. Van den Broek will help anchor the defense along with sophomore back Flor Vogels whom she played with in the Netherlands.

The challenge of this year’s team will be to mesh the many newcomers with the current players, if the Cavaliers are able to do this then they are well on their way to a national championship. So if you have not made it out to University Hall Turf Field, I strongly encourage to watch a game this season. I can confidently say that the field hockey team will beat William and Mary when they play on September 17.