 Hello and welcome to the coaches corner. I'm Joe Wamba joined now with Laurel Martin, head coach of the field hockey team. And coach round out the season, a 3-0 victory at home, first against Wilson on Tuesday. And then round and out conference play with a 2-1 loss against Lebanon Valley. Over the course of the season, we've seen some ebbs and flows. But in reality, we're still optimistic throughout the season. Some players really were able to develop over the course of the season. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, I think that this season, the ebbs and flows goes into the youth of this team. The majority of the starters were either sophomores or freshmen. And with that comes ebbs and flows. So you're going to run into that. And I mean, that is the good news is that hopefully those will work through and those will be eliminated so we can be more consistent across the board to secure a couple more Ws when it's those close matches that we weren't able to do this year. Yeah, a lot of close matches this year. Some of those go the other way, like you said. And we're in postseason contention. It's the way sports goes. Yeah. And a sport like field hockey, it could be a 0-0 draw all the way up to the 90th minute, so to speak. Absolutely. Now, concentrating a little bit on, we want to thank all the seniors that we had this year. One that stood out to me having a career year this year was Blair Bittner. She has her career year on defensive saves. Was a presence for you back there. And in that Wilson game gets her first career assist. It was cute because her mom came up to me at the tailgate and was like, Blair got an assist because she's as a right back. I wouldn't say highly unusual, but it is unusual. So that was neat for her first for her in her career. And certainly, I think Blair is the most educated defender back there. She's been with me for four years. She understands the chess match, if you will. And she's very good at communicating that. So she will be deeply missed and had a great senior year. And I had an opportunity for that game to be on the sideline shooting some sideline footage, which I don't get to do that often, but when I do, I love it. And it seemed like the whole defensive unit back there in that game didn't give Wilson much of an opportunity to be on our defensive side of the field at all. They were playing as a unit, keeping the pressure on. And it paid off with the amount of shots that you guys put on the board and the goals. Yeah. Yeah, that was a neat thing for us. We wanted to be really attacking. And we wanted to give everyone an opportunity to touch the ball, and we were able to do that. So that was a neat game. Yeah, and so having that opportunity, and in the last couple of games, you also got an opportunity for the youth to get on the field, or you have so much on the roster as it is. Yeah, we have a large roster. Yeah. Moving into the off season and then into the spring season, some a little bit of optimism. And it's going to be tough to keep the nose of the grindstone and keep working hard. But opportunity was there throughout the season. Yeah, absolutely. I want to touch base about that. And then I also want to rewind a little bit and talk about Holly and Rosie, the other two seniors as well. So yeah, I'm really super excited for the future. I mean, this team is already, we're planning a Thanksgiving get-together. And we just, although our season had come to an abrupt end and one that we wouldn't have liked, we had a Halloween practice. And we're planning Bull Roast. And we're heading to Barbados this spring. So not this spring, I'm sorry, in August of 2017. So there's a lot of excitement and a lot of opportunities for this team in the future. And I'm very hopeful and thankful for this young group. And I think we're going to do some great things in the future. A lot of team building opportunities there for you guys. And in a team that is already really close and they all get along really well. Yeah, we bond great. It's a great group and some dynamic personalities and a lot of different good things coming from them. And you touched on it a little bit with the other two seniors that we haven't talked about yet. And that camaraderie comes from the leadership on the field in those seniors. Right. Yeah, so we have three different seniors that bring so many different things. So Blair, obviously, she's the leader in the back field with the knowledge and the communication. And we've talked about that. And then we have Holly. And she comes into the midfield. And she can switch to the forward line. She's very versatile. And Holly is just one of those positive kids that's the one that's always saying, come on guys, you can do it. And she's sort of the cheerleader of the group. She's the positive one that's trying to get everybody going. And then Rosie is just the sweet outer demeanor with this inner competitive drive that really makes her excel. And she's really worked through some ups and downs throughout a lot of seasons. And never quits, just keeps fighting to get those goals in the net. And another leader on the sideline for you too. Of course, she hasn't played too much as Gabby. Yes, Gabby. She's been a leader in morale and everything. And I get to see her almost every day. And she's a fun one to talk to you as well. Absolutely. Gabby is one of the truest competitors that I've ever met. I can understand Gabby's mindset because it's not too dissimilar from mine. So I respect her, her work ethic, and she's had some unfortunate injuries that have really set her back because she would be a major impact player for us. But we look forward to hopefully working with her in the future and just continue to build this program. And we wish the best of luck to those seniors in their graduation. And I don't know if any of them are coming back for the master's programs. And I know a lot of our athletes do do that. And that's one credit to our athletes is they continue their educational career. That's actually Gabby's planning on doing that. Great, wonderful. And we wish her the best of luck. And best of luck moving into the off season and spring ball next year. And we thank you for all your time these weeks. We had a pleasure talking to you. She's Laura Martin. I'm Joe Waman. This has been the Coaches Corner.