Aug. 23, 2011
Opening Statement:
I'm always so excited when fall rolls around, because obviously it's field hockey season here in Happy Valley and I know there's a lot of excitement for that. Just real thrilled about the incoming class that we have that joined a great upper-class group. I'm real pleased with the fitness level that the girls came back with. We had to work around the weather a bit this preseason, but overall I thought it was an outstanding preseason, getting a lot of quality practices in, as well as the two exhibition games we played James Madison and Maryland, learned a lot from both of those competitions. Now, we're just trying to get ready for our competitions this weekend against Old Dominion and Virginia.
Q: Even though it was an exhibition, was it good to get a win against a team like Maryland?
Morett: Yes, it's excellent. Not only to win, but to have the opportunity to play such a high level team, a team that's been National Champions the previous year. Now, they have a storied history of winning National Championships. I just thought it was great to see the way our team competed. We had a little lull in the second half, but that's somewhat expected. We saw our continued fortitude as the match went on towards the end. To come up with the win was a real confidence booster.
Q: What about having a freshman scoring 2 goals in a game like that, is that something you're expecting out of her this year?
Morett: She, Jenna Chismer, was a little frustrated the day before when we scored 7 goals against James Madison and she didn't have one of them. We kept saying to Jenna she's always in the right place. She's a player that can get her stick on anything. She's a player that never stops playing. So we expected her to get some goals at some point, hopefully throughout the season. She just has great savviness in front of the goal.
Q: What about the other freshman that you expect to have big impacts?
Morett: I would say Laura Gebhart, our center-mid. We put a freshman in the center-mid position to play right away. We matched her up against Maryland's top player, from Australia, and I thought she did a great job against her. Laura is the only freshman in the country on the US squad. So she brings a lot of experience, international experience, to her game and our game at Penn State. She was on the Junior World Cup team as a sophomore in high school. So she's very used to playing in a lot of pressure situations. You don't notice her as much around the goal cage, but all-of-a-sudden, she's going to pop out and take a pretty dangerous shot. She does a good job of distributing play in the midfield. Taylor Herold is a player we have from Virginia and she's been our first substitute off the bench. She can play anywhere on the forward line, anywhere on the midfield line. She has a lot of speed, a lot of heart, a lot of strength. She doesn't look like a freshman out there, she's got great size. We started Katie Andrews, player from Lancaster, who's a freshman. We started her at left back in the Maryland game and she played the entire game. So I think that speaks a lot about our freshman.
Q: What about in goal?
Morett: The goalkeeping situation is sort of like Penn State's quarterback situation. We've got a player that has a lot of experience, we have a freshman that can challenge for that position. We like that we have two solid goalkeepers. It was nice to give them equal time during the exhibitions. I thought they both showed a lot of presence in the cage, which was nice to see. Ayla (Halus) obviously has more experience and is the player we will start with going into the weekend. But we know if Ayla gets in some trouble that we have Kylie Licata that can come in and do a nice job as well.
Q: Coach, you talked about defense a lot last week. How do you thing your team performed in the exhibition games in that area?
Morett: I thought defense was actually a bright spot, except for the twenty- minute flurry that Maryland had in the beginning of the second half. Lauren Alloway is one of our senior captains, she has anchored the back line for us. She just has a lot of heart, she can distribute the ball, has good passing skills. So when she comes up after making a tackle, she can really get the attack going right away. The defenders, I thought, did an excellent job of staying man-to-man on their mark. We still have to fix a couple up-man situations, when it's 4-on-3, 3-on-2. Some of the players need to adjust their positioning a little, but I really felt good about the way they played man-to-man. We moved Hannah Allison, who was at left mid for us, who's another one of the captains. We moved her into the backfield as well, so Hannah's had to take on some bigger defensive responsibilities. I thought Hannah, as well, did a really nice job of stepping up and reading the play a bit better before it got to a dangerous situation at the top of the circle. Then Hannah has an awesome shot and she's ready to whip one when she gets to the top of the circle.
Q: What are the expectations for this season?
Morett: We're looking to win a Big Ten Championship and we're real excited to host the Big Ten Tournament here and it's been a long time since we've had it here, I think since 2003. It'll be nice to play that tournament on our home turf. We're looking forward to playing and preparing to win the tournament. We also feel that it's important for us to get back to the NCAA Tournament. The recent preseason poll came out today and there are a lot of top teams that we play on our schedule. So we feel like playing a very competitive schedule, hopefully, will put us in a position to get to postseason play.