Centennial Conference Coaches Preseason Poll
Centennial Conference Preseason Guide
HAVERFORD, Pa. - The Haverford College field hockey team has been picked to finish fourth in the Centennial Conference coaches' poll with 70 voting points for the 2014 season. Coaches were not allowed to vote for their own team in the poll.
Ursinus and Franklin & Marshall finished with 94 points, the most in the conference. Ursinus won last year's Centennial Conference playoff and led the conference with six first-place votes. Franklin & Marshall won last season's Centennial Conference regular season title and had five first-place votes in the poll.
Dickinson was other team in front of Haverford, finishing with 84 voting points, while John Hopkins (50 points) was voted fifth. Gettysburg, Muhlenberg, Washington College, McDaniel, Swarthmore and Bryn Mawr round out the coaches' poll.
The Fords return two of their top four leading scorers from the 2013 campaign in seniors Jen DiMaria and Catherine Aronowitz. DiMaria led the team with 11 goals and 27 points while Aronowitz tallied seven goals and six assists for 22 points. Haverford College MacIntosh Award winner and All-Centennial Conference second-team member sophomore Sarah Waldis returns for the Fords along with junior goalkeeper Lindsey Lopes. Lopes went 11-8 with 2.35 goals against average and .734 save percentage.
The Fords will have to replace a trio of graduates, Bryn Bissey, Megan Holt and Megan Riley that finished with a program-record 50 victories during their four seasons. Bissey tied a team record with 76 games in her career and finished tied for fifth in program history with 74 points. Holt was a two-time team captain while Riley was a two-time National Field Hockey Coaches' Association Academic Squad member.
Head coach Jackie Cox, in her fifth season, will look to get Haverford to its sixth consecutive Centennial Conference tournament in 2014. The regular season opener will be against Rowan University (Aug. 30) at Swan Field beginning at 2:30 p.m. The Centennial Conference opener is at Dickinson on Sept. 20 beginning at 11:00 a.m.