HOLMDEL – Coming off a season that saw them win 10 games and a first-round exit in the Shore Conference Tournament, the Saint John Vianney field hockey team hopes to take the next step this season.
First-year head coach Amanda Westerweller will be tasked in leading the Lancers this season, and the team is off to a strong start. Westerweller played collegiately at Monmouth University and was an assistant at SJV for the last two years before taking over the program this season. Being an assistant, she is familiar with most of the players and the transition from assistant to head coach was more so off the field than on it.
“I knew coming in most of the girls and what their strengths are and where to position them,” Westerweller said. “Being a first-time head coach has been fun. It’s a step up from being an assistant in terms of reporting scores, doing paperwork and sending out emails. But there’s really not a lot changes on the field.”
Westerweller’s assistants are Haley Meade, who played at Rutgers and Tamera Eagan, who played at Kean. Both are in their first year at Saint John Vianney.
One reason why the Lancers have high expectations is they are a veteran squad this season, with 11 seniors on the roster. But that success won’t just come on the field because they are a veteran team, and Westerweller made sure before the season her seniors knew it was on them to take this team where they want to go.
“Before the season, I took each one of them one by one to explain expectations this year, but it won’t just come,” Westerweller said. “I told them ‘you have to work hard and make it happen.’”
The Lancers have a pair of leading scorers in senior Lauren Tuschmann, who scored 30 goals last season as a junior and moved up on offense from center-mid to center forward, and junior Grace Langdon, who scored four goals on Oct. 1 in a 9-3 win against Red Bank Regional. Both have scored nine goals on the season.
Other key players for SJV this season are senior defensive center-mid Aleeyah Goode, senior center-mid Caryn McGrory, senior center back Sarah Kulaga, and senior left-mid Juliana Largo.
Senior goaltender Alexa Waldron is in just her second season playing the position. She started playing the position as a junior and is still learning.
The Lancers play in B North, which is a competitive division featuring Wall, Ocean Township, Middletown North, Neptune, Matawan, and Red Bank Regional. Playing good teams is what Westerweller wants her team to do, because it makes them better.
“It’s good to play in a division like B North with teams like Wall, Ocean Township and Middletown North,” Westerweller said. “We expect to finish in the top three in our division this year, but it is also good to play teams that are going to challenge you, because that’s how you improve. It is a very competitive division.”
The ultimate goal for Saint John Vianney this season is to go as far as their 11 seniors will take them. They have high expectations to make deep runs in both the Shore Conference and state tournaments.
“We want to go deep in the Shore Conference and the states,” Westerweller said. “We expect to beat the teams we are supposed to beat, and we want to go out and do our best against some of the more advanced teams.”
- 2023 JSN Awards Finalists Announced - December 18, 2023
- Sunil Sunder Raj Recaps Day One of State Football Finals With OnNJ (VIDEO) - November 27, 2023
- Mental Health and Exercise: Finding Balance in New Jersey's Fast-Paced Life - November 27, 2023
