Wesleyan field hockey had an impressive year. The team concluded its 2023 season with a 9–7 record, their best record since 2010. The Cardinals went 4–2 in non-conference matchups and 5–5 in NESCAC play, outscoring their opponents 45–33 across their 16 games.

The Cardinals kicked off the season in dominant fashion, defeating Worcester Polytechnic Institute in a commanding 3–0 victory on Tuesday, Sept. 5. This was a crucial reversal of the previous season’s results when the Red and Black suffered a 1–2 defeat against the Engineers in their inaugural game. Sydney Atwood ’25 emphasized that this season-opening victory was key to setting the tone for the year.

“That game was so important for us because it was a crazy loss last year,” Atwood said. “And having that in mind and beating them in our first game of the season, when the stakes were really high really helped our mindset going forward and [gave us] confidence. We are a good team, we can win games if we work together and keep a positive mindset while playing.”

The Cards followed this win up with a historic 6–3 victory at Colby on Saturday, Sept. 9, which was just the third game in the program’s history in which Wesleyan scored six or more goals over a NESCAC opponent. Kenzie Mauro ’27 and Georgia Adams ’26 both scored twice in the first multi-goal game of their respective careers.

The Red and Black then faced a series of non-conference matchups, earning victories over Clark University (5–0) and Roger Williams University (3–2) and suffering their first defeat against No. 18 nationally ranked Bryn Mawr College (1–3).

But the Cardinals would not be down for long, returning to conference play the next weekend in top form with back-to-back wins against No. 14 ranked Trinity and No. 15 Hamilton.

“The week leading up to that we knew that we had to be locked in, we had to be focused and we also knew that both of those teams would not come slow, and we wouldn’t be able to walk over them,” Imani Ochieng ’25 said. “We knew that we were gonna have to [show up].”

The Cardinals defeated the Bantams handily 4–1 on Saturday, Nov. 4, with each of the four goals coming from a different Cardinal. The next day the Continentals proved to be stiffer competition, but the Red and Black still came out on top with a 2–1 win. With this victory, the Cardinals were 3–0 to start NESCAC play for the first time in program history.

“That set the tone for every game after that,” captain Helen Deretchin ’25 said. “We had energy, we had intensity, and we played in the moment.”

The following weekend, the Cardinals suffered their first conference loss of the season (1–5) to the No. 1 nationally ranked Middlebury.

The Cardinals’ next game was equally demanding, as they had to travel to Tufts to take on the fifth-ranked Jumbos on a Wednesday night.

It was a back-and-forth gritty contest with the Cardinals scoring first on a tap-in goal from Adams off a shot from Sarah Porter ’27 that hit the post. The Cardinals took a 1–0 lead into halftime, but the Jumbos responded, scoring two minutes into the second half. That was the only goal for a Jumbo’s offense that was averaging 2.9 goals per game. Adams highlighted the strength of the defense’s performance.

“It was just an amazing defensive game for us,” Adams said. “Our defensive line doesn’t get enough credit. In general, it’s very easy to congratulate forwards and midfielders for goals [and] assists. But I think we had one shot on goal in that game in regulation. And it was just defense literally the entire time.”

Tufts controlled much of the second half, but the Cardinals’ defense and the goalkeeping of Audrey Pace ’26 kept the game knotted at one a-piece after sixty minutes. It was the Cardinals’ first overtime game of the season, but the team took this challenge in stride.

Six minutes into overtime, captain Kenzie Kelly ’25 fired a shot that Jumbos goalie Lydia Eastburn blocked illegally with her foot. This gave the Cardinals a penalty stroke which Deretchin had the honor of taking. The Cardinals junior captain stepped up and, with remarkable composure, she slid the ball past Eastburn to give the Cardinals a 2–1 upset victory over the Jumbos. Ochieng described the scene after the Cardinals secured the win.

“After the goal was scored, we’re all screaming and sprinting into each other and literally dogpiling Helen, and she is just crying because it was such a moment that we’ve thought about since our freshman year,” Ochieng said. “And beating them just felt so empowering and surreal.”

The Cards then suffered back-to-back losses to ranks No. 13 Amherst (1–3) and No. 10 Bates (0–3) but came back with a stunning 9–1 victory over Wheaton College, the most goals the team has scored in a game since 2010.

“That was the embodiment of a team win,” Atwood said. “There were people that scored that hadn’t gotten their name on the board yet. We were trying to be gritty as a team. You can still have a good outcome even if it doesn’t look pretty, and that’s how we scored a lot of those goals.”

The Cardinals’ senior game took place against the No. 11 rank, Bowdoin, whom the Cardinals had not beaten since 2009. Adding fuel to the fire of the matchup, the Cardinals’ head coach, Christine Kemp, had a long history with the team.

“[Kemp] was this amazing player in college, and she had lost to Bowdoin every single year,” Adams said. “She lost to Bowdoin in the Final Four. And then her senior year of college, Bowdoin ended her college career. And then she lost to Bowdoin in the Final Four when she was coaching at Skidmore. And so she’d never beaten Bowdoin. They were her kryptonite.”

The Cardinals started strong, with Kelly and Adams each scoring a goal in the first four minutes. The Polar Bears bounced back, cutting the lead in half with a goal in the 26th minute. The Polar Bears kept up the pressure in the second half and were able to find the equalizer in the 58th minute to send the game to overtime.

With neither team able to score in overtime, the game headed into penalty shootouts, only the second such game for the Cardinals since 2016. Each team scored once in the initial best-of-five shootout, paving the way for a sudden-death contest. Melanie Lim ’24 took the shot for the Red and Black and found the back of the net to give the Cardinals the lead. Pace stopped Bowdoin’s attempt to tie the game up, giving the Cardinals their first win against Bowdoin since 2009. Deretchin highlighted how exciting it was for the team to secure the senior day victory.

“That was such a great game for Melanie because it was her senior game,” Deretchin said. “And we were tied up at the end of the shootouts, so it was sudden death. All you needed was one shooter. And Melanie was the first person to raise her hand. And then she scored and then Audrey made the save, and it was just perfect. A perfect senior day.”

Their regular season concluded on Tuesday, Oct. 24, with a hard-fought 1–2 loss to Conn. College. But the Cards weren’t done yet.

The Red and Black earned a berth in the NESCAC Championships as the fifth seed, where they traveled to play Williams for the quarterfinal matchup. It was a closely contested game that went into overtime, with the Ephs notching a game-winner that ended the Cardinals season.

Adams spoke on the disappointment of the loss while also acknowledging the success the team had.

“I think that the hard part about getting so close to something is that it hurts that much more when you lose,” Adams said. “And it’s interesting how it makes you be grateful for being sad because I’m like, ‘Wow, we had something to lose.’ So we talked a lot about how that sadness is a privilege. And there’s also this big feeling of like that was just the beginning.”

The impressive season of the team was recognized by the NESCAC with Adams, Ochieng, and Pace all receiving First-Team All NESCAC, while Deretchin earned Second-Team recognition. This quartet of NESCAC honorees equals the record set in the 2002 season. It also set the record for the most First-Team selections for the Cardinals, as the team had never before had multiple in a single season. It was a remarkable feat to cap off an equally remarkable season.

Erin Byerly can be reached at ebyerly@wesleyan.edu.

Sam Weitzman-Kurker can be reached at sweitzmankur@wesleyan.edu.