Months and months of practice dating back to the raw, damp days of autumn paid off over a couple of warm weekends in early June for the Maine Majestix field hockey club. For the first time, both its under-16 and U19 teams qualified for the National Club Championship next month.
The Waterville-based teams —with players from Cony, Lawrence, Messalonskee, Mt. Blue, Skowhegan, Winslow and Winthrop — both reached the championship game in their respective tournaments. The top two teams from the New England/New York region earned automatic bids to nationals.
Despite having just two subs, the U19 team went 1-1 in its three-team pool in Epping, N.H., to advance to the playoff round, then clinched a spot in the championship game before falling to Boston Field Hockey Club during the first weekend of June.
The following weekend, the U16 team, which last year became the first Majestix team to qualify for nationals, rolled through the first four rounds before bowing to the top-ranked team in New England, Northeast Elite of Windham, N.H., in the final.
“This year is very exciting just because both teams were able to qualify,” said Ally Corbett, a center-mid from Messalonskee who played for both teams and was a member of last year’s U16 team. “Regionals are very tough. We were very tired afterwards. It’s very good practice, because nationals are even tougher.”
The U16 team includes Corbett, Lydia Dexter, Autumn Littlefield, Haley Lowell, Kaitlyn Smith and Josie Varney from Messalonskee; Kealey Bowman, Maliea Kelso and Kelsey Thaller of Skowhegan; Moriah Hajduk and Emily Molino of Winthrop; Hannah Minns of Mt. Blue; Delaney Keithley from Cony and Kiley Nelson and Kelsey Mehuren of Belfast. Amy Bernatchez and her daughter Katie, a former Messalonskee star and current BU player, served as coaches.
The U19 team features Corbett, Dexter, Hajduk, Keithley, Lowell and Nelson, as well as Emily Hogan of Messalonskee; Lilla Tilton Flood of Lawrence; Bethany Winkin, Alyssa Wood and Delaney Wood from Winslow; Katriona Hajduk of Winthrop and Abby Walker of Scarborough. Former Husson University coach Katie McCabe served as coach.
McCabe’s team was short-handed due to conflicting graduation activities for a number of her players, so six players had to be called up from the u16 team to fill out the roster.
“We were young, but I knew we would have a shot of qualifying for nationals,” McCabe said. “The girls did a great job of making in-game adjustments. Certain teams have certain tenancies and our girls were very good at recognizing those and shutting them down in the second half. A lot of girls that swung up from the under-16 team really played a big part of our game.”
The U16 team played five games in the span of 26 hours on the hot field turf in Bedford.
“It was the first hot days of the season and it was pretty exhausting for the girls, but they endured,” Amy Bernatchez said.
Bernatchez noted strong performances from Lowell (“Our most consistent player”), Dexter (“The backbone of our defense”) and goalie Thaller.
“She just put on the pads last fall,” Bernatchez said. “I would say she’s one of the more inexperienced goalies, but when I look at how far she’s come in eight months, it’s amazing.”
Both national tournaments are comprised of 16-team fields and will be played at the USA Field Hockey National Training Center in Lancaster, Pa. The U16 tournament is July 12-14, the U19 July 15-17.
Both teams will have players who were part of last year’s U16 national tournament. That team lost all seven of its games, but Corbett, who recently completed her sophomore year at Messalonskee, believes that experience will pay off this year.
“It was kind of a wake-up call last year,” she said. “Going to nationals, we all had to step up our game last year and we didn’t play as well as we would have liked. But we know what to expect this time and we feel really prepared.”
The national tournaments are loaded with teams used to playing other top-notch competition with greater regularity than the Majestix and other Maine teams are able to, McCabe said. Execution and confidence could be key to getting into the win column this time, which makes the next two weeks of practice so crucial.
“We know it’s a tough, tough group of 16 teams, but I feel we aren’t out of place,” McCabe said. “We were competitive in every game last year, and I hope they have the confidence going in knowing they do belong there.”
Randy Whitehouse — 621-5638
rwhitehouse@mainetoday.com
Twitter: @RAWmaterial33
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