St. Anne’s-Belfield’s field hockey program has undergone three head coaching changes in the last three years, switching from Brian Bartholemew to Mary Blake last year and now to Shelly Edmonds this season.
But unlike other programs that have faltered with constant leadership change, the Saints have gotten stronger each year, winning an LIS championship last season under Mary Blake. But this year’s edition of the Saints, led by Edmonds, a former UVa standout, might be the best in some time for STAB.
They certainly looked like it Wednesday, knocking off a young, rebuilding Western Albemarle squad 4-0 just days after beating Monticello.
“We’re building really good momentum,” Edmonds said. “I felt like the girls came out and played with a lot of heart today.”
It didn’t take long for the momentum to swing in the Saints’ favor against the Warriors as Annie Cory, a sophomore who played a standout role on the STAB lacrosse squad as a freshman, drove in for the first goal just five minutes into the contest.
“She’s very confident for her age level and she has a ton of really good stick skills and field sense,” Edmonds said.
The Saints didn’t left off the gas the rest of the half either as Covenant transfer Sadie Bryant pushed the lead to 2-0 before halftime. Between Bryant (who also stars in lacrosse), Lauren Gammper (an All-VISAA D1 soccer goalie), Julia Haney (a Princeton commit in lacrosse), there are a host of multi-sport standouts leading the way for the Saints.
“A lot of them know each other from playing all their different sports,” Edmonds said. “It’s easy to make a lot of analogies with them.”
Claiborne Dandridge and Issabel Scholz rounded out the scoring for the Saints with a pair of second half goals and Cory picked up an assist on Scholz’ finish. Brittany Schoeb played solid in the cage for the Saints and came up with four stops.
Western Albemarle wasn’t discouraged by the effort against an increasingly powerful STAB squad. The Warriors are playing at least two and sometimes four freshmen on the field at a single time. That’s bound to lead to mental mistakes and breakdowns occasionally, but against the Saints, Western played solid field hockey for long stretches.
“We’re really really young,” said Western coach Mia Fields. “It’s so invigorating because they’re trying really hard. Yes, we lost 4-0 but we did a lot of really good things. We took away a lot of good things from this one.”
First year starter at keeper Madi Pittman came up with nine saves for the Warriors.
The Saints will try and keep things going Friday when they head south to take on the Carlisle School while the Warriors jump into Jefferson District play with a road game against Powhatan next Thursday.
