With a swing of a stick and strong communication across the team, the Field Hockey Lady Bears took home their first win against Walnut Hills.
The Bears constructed their team from the ground up after a loss of five seniors from their previous season, and a new coach, Gregory Siehl, who formerly coached at Liberty and has only been at Berlin for two years.
In addition to the changes, the Lady Bears recruited enough players for a JV team, with two wins secured early in the season.
“We won our first JV game at Lancaster which was pretty early on in our season. I was super excited to have scored my first goal along with one of my teammates, Gianna Rizek,” Molly Murray ’28 said.
To start their doubleheader day, the Bears took on Walnut Hills. The girls came together on home turf to defend the Bear Country again after four games away. With a goal scored by sophomore Alexis Itano and an assist by Abby Daddis early on, the Bears had a lead as they headed into the second half.
“I felt like we were working our best as a team. Every goal that we had at least three people contributed to. I felt like our communication, our positioning, and spacing was even better,” Daddis said.
A switch of sides and subs, the Bears had a strong start to the second half, with sophomore Riley Passarini up the field as a midfield player. With a high shot on the right side of the field in the circle, Passarini scored.
As the clock ran out of the first game the girls stormed the Bear, but their day was far from over with another game against Shaker Heights.
With the ball possession in Shaker Heights’ hands, the Bears had a strong start defensively as no goals were scored in the first half for either team. With juniors Madison Benson, Japji Kaur, and sophomore Kenley Sherman on the defensive line, the teams went into overtime.
“It was super intense going into overtime, we all really just wanted another win so the motivation and energy was high,” Benson said.
From 11 players to seven for overtime, players Itano and Isabella Duperow as forwards, Benson and Eva Frasher on defense, Kelsey Grubbs with Daddis on midfield, and Samantha Bean in goal, neither team scored.
With their senior night to recognize Daddis and Frasher against Orange on October 7, the Bears are focused on communication, intensity, and a strong start to take another win home for the Bear country.
