Field Hockey Champs
OUR UD | 2016 was quite the year for UD field hockey.
There was the history-making November National Championship game, in which the No. 8 Blue Hens capped their campaign with a 3-2 win over No. 4 North Carolina to capture their first-ever NCAA crown. (Prior to that, the University had not made it to the final four weekend since 1982, the second year of the tournament’s existence).
There was the season itself, in which Delaware Field Hockey, which won its fourth straight CAA title, wrapped the year by winning its final 19 games and outscoring opponents by an astonishing 100-39 margin over the course of the season.
And there were the accolades that followed. Head coach Rolf van de Kerkhof and his staff were named the Front Rush/NFHCA Division I National Coach of the Year, the Colonial Athletic Association Coach of the Year, ECAC Eastern Coach of the Year and NFHCA Mid-Atlantic Region Coach of the Year.
Sophomore Greta Nauck, AS19, who tallied the game-winning goal in 10 of UD’s 23 victories—including the National Championship game, where she did so with less than 6 minutes to play—was named the nation’s best collegiate field hockey player. The two-time All-American was also named the CAA’s Player of the Year, the ECAC Division I Offensive Player of the Year and was featured in Sports Illustrated as a part of the ‘Faces in the Crowd’ and within SI for Kids with her own trading card.
Three-time All-American midfielder Esmée Peet, BE17, was named CAA Scholar-Athlete for field hockey, and the entire team has been lauded and praised for its drive and determination.
One high-profile fan has been especially supportive and inspiring.
“I don’t think there’s anything that prepares you more in life than sports,” said Vice President Joe Biden, AS65, who welcomed the team to his then-home in the U.S. Naval Observatory.
