Aug. 25, 2015
FALL SPORTS MEDIA DAY
BRYCE JORDAN CENTER GREEN ROOM
AUGUST 26, 2013
FIELD HOCKEY
Opening Statement
Head Coach Charlene Morett-Curtiss: We are just so excited about getting the season started. I was having a conversation with Jeff Nelson about our opening game against Old Dominion, and just the history of that and how long we have been opening up with Old Dominion and Virginia. It's been quite a while, but I always feel that opening up with a strong opponent really gives purpose to our preseason. We've had a fantastic preseason. We have a lot of new young players in. At the same time, we have Haley (Kerstetter) and Steph Hussey, our two senior captains, who have just done a tremendous job this past preseason, keeping the team motivated and working hard. So we're just still trying to find out where we can position some people on the field, so we need to figure that out in the next three days. But the nice part about this team is they have tremendous chemistry and a lot of depth, so we're looking forward to opening this weekend in Virginia.
Q: Between the Drexel scrimmage and the practices so far what have you seen that you like and what do you think you can improve?
Morett-Curtiss: That's a great question, our scrimmage with Drexel I felt like we weren't really connecting with possession passes, so we really put a lot of emphasis on ball speed and just our positioning. We did have two inter-squad scrimmages after that. The Drexel scrimmage came very quickly for us so we have really improved our possession. I think our challenge right now is to get our defense to work as a unit. We have a new goalkeeper, somewhat of a new backfield, we've lost eight starters from last year so it's a total new look but it's very, very refreshing.
Q: It seems that you have more turnover than usual, at least as far as your starting cast, how difficult is it trying to go into the year having so many new faces and so many new changes?
Morett-Curtiss: You know it's exciting, and like I said, refreshing what they can do, there is a lot of new talent but at the same time Haley's [Kerstetter] done a great job as a defensive back and Stephanie (Hussey) has done a really good job in the attacking end to keep those two units of offense and defense cohesive. But it is a challenge getting that whole new crew to work together, whereas we've been fortunate with the past group that they've come along as a big freshman group and played together for a significant amount of time, but at the same time as a coach you know being at this profession for quite some time, you realize that you go through different seasons like this. I think it's an opportunity for some young talent and young-experienced players they may not be necessarily young, regarding Haley is a senior, but she is rather inexperienced, as is Steph. So our squad overall is inexperienced. So I think it's going to be a day-by-day progression and I see them growing every day since preseason.
Q: For Haley, how's it been getting used to playing with all the new, young players?
Haley Kerstetter: It's been a lot of fun. The really cool thing is this is such a driven group. Twenty of the 25 girls stayed this summer, so that played a monumental role in building that team chemistry Char was talking about. Everybody got a lot of touches on the ball together this summer and we just had fun. Before preseason and everything got started, it was a matter of hitting around, getting out and getting to know each other. So it has been an experience and it's been a fun experience at that and they have so much to offer that we can learn from them and then what we have we offer back to them, so it's really cool.
Q: Based on this past week at camp, what are you looking at in terms of filling empty spots for starters?
Morett-Curtiss: You know, as I said to the team, we don't have names written in different positions. I don't want to call it a tryout, so we're just trying to find the best players to fill the specific positions and then see if we have versatility between the players that they can play different positions. We've had Haley on a side back, we've had her on center back, and we've had Carly Celkos as a midi and back, Kirsten (Gochnauer) has played a different number of positions as well. So we're really looking to put together a cohesive group to start the game, understanding that we do have players we can easily turn to off the bench that can fill a role if someone is having a tough go that day.
Q: Looking at your scoring numbers from last year you lost a lot of scoring, where will the scoring be coming from this year?
Morett-Curtiss: That's obviously been a concern of mine as well. [Smiles] We're looking for Steph Hussey - she's going to be a center striker for us. We also have an international player; Aurelia Meijer has come in from Holland. She is a right wing and has just done a tremendous job adapting to our practice culture. It's very different for Aurelia. She practices three days a week (in Holland) and she came into camp and you know we're practicing twice a day for like 10 days straight. She is someone that I think can set up a lot of the scoring and hopefully she'll set up Steph. Shay Cannon has had a tremendous spring and a good start to the preseason as well, so Shay, Kirsten - we're really looking for those four, Kasey Morano as well. So we have a lot of young strikers we just need to get them to maintain their poise around the cage.
Q: Obviously the on the field part is challenging figuring out new players, but how has the leadership piece come along and progressed through camp as new players have to step up?
Kerstetter: I think for all of us it was a great opportunity even with the freshman to start building leadership. There was a huge gap losing Laura (Gebhart) because she was a huge pillar in that, but especially in the spring sophomores through juniors through seniors really stepped into it and the communication role was a big part of that and just finding our voices on the field but then also off the field. Even the freshmen this year have done a good job of stepping in and using their voice telling people where to mark. It's been an overall leadership development for the whole team not just one particular group.
Morett-Curtiss: We brought Lee Rubin in - he was the football captain in 1993 - he now runs his own business with motivation speaking. He was dropping his daughter off to be a freshman here at Penn State so he contacted me about coming on campus and we had him in front of the players, and he was outstanding. He talked about five components to create an extraordinary team, and I think the players really embraced it. I think that experience with Lee helped provide a lot of cohesiveness amongst the team. We were grateful we could have a Penn State alum come back and give us a little motivation from that aspect. I would say that's really helped our leadership. We just named captains the last day of preseason, and clearly Steph and Haley just have tremendous respect and support from everyone on the team. I think that's going to be a strong leadership component for us this year.