With 10 victories already in the book this season, and the potential for more, the Washington-Liberty Generals are happy with their start.
Victory No. 10 was a 2-0 triumph over the Herndon Hornets in a recent Liberty District girls high-school field hockey match. That win was a big bounce backfor the Generals and snapped a two-match losing streak after being blanked by the host Bishop O’Connell Knights, 3-0, and nipped by the Fairfax Lions, 2-1.
O’Connell and Fairfax are two of the top teams in Northern Virginia.
With a roster that includes nine seniors, the Generals begin this week with a 10-4 overall record and stand 4-1 in the district under first-year head coach Graceton Griffith. She was a team assistant the past two seasons.
Griffith said one of her big emphases was offseason weight lifting andtraining to improve the players’ conditioning.
“I see that has made an impact toward the end of games, because we don’t get tired,” Griffith said.
Another area of concentration has been focusing on possession of the ball instead of individual play. The coach said the Generals did that well against Herndon, but not as much in the loss to O’Connell.
“We possessed the ball and passed well against Herndon and did what we want to do in matches,” she said.
In that road win, Kelly McIntyre and Claudia Volpe scored the goals, with Riley Clouse and Abby Bodnar having assists. Kaitlyn Nowinski earned the shutout in goal. Nowinski, Apollo Crenshaw, Elizabeth Brown and Sophie Bourgeois have been among those leading the defense.
“Our defense has been super-strong,” Griffith said.
The Generals have recorded five shutouts.
Helen Hanke, Tessa Baj, Lola Gomez, Clara Cabalu and Elle Pickard are other seniors for Washington-Liberty. Four freshmen receiving playing time are Ella Hewitt, Abigail Bodnar, McKenna Kee and Margaret Erwin.
Washington-Liberty has two big matches this week, against the defending Class 6 state champion and district and Arlington rival Yorktown Patriots, then the Woodson Cavaliers in a non-league match.
Yorktown has a 10-3 overall record, stands 5-0 in the district and will enter the match against W-L with a three-match winning streak, having outscored that trio of opponents 15-0. Yorktown’s most recent win was over McLean when Anna Menard, Elena Reiser, Paige Baskin and Olivia Stafford scored goals. Sarah Kinzer earned the shutout in goal.
Stafford is Yorktown’s leading scorer with 11 goals and eight assists. Reiser has 10 goals and three assists, Quincy Greene has scored seven times with five assists and Kiki Friemel has four goals.
