The fall of 2024 is still a long way off, but a quick glance ahead shows that Salisbury field hockey is poised to take a big step forward, continuing the growth that the Falcons have shown over the past few seasons.

Salisbury finished this past season with an 8-9-2 record overall and a 6-6-2 Colonial League record. While the Falcons just missed qualifying for the league playoffs, they did qualify for districts and look for a deeper run next season.

“I am so proud of the girls and the fantastic season we had,” said coach Jane Brennan. “Our goal was to qualify for districts in back-to-back seasons and we did. Our team learned so much about each other this season, which we will only continue to build on in the next couple of years.”

Salisbury came into the season with a very young team but with some quality seniors to help provide experience and leadership for the younger group of players. Seniors Bailee Neitz and Riley Knecht were stalwarts defensively and were the only two seniors to start. The Falcons had four other seniors – Allie Beckage, Anna Edwards, Ava Smarch, and Paige Ziegenfus – on the roster.

“Bailee controlled our backfield and will be missed because of her strong block tackles and drives to switch fields,” said Brennan. “Riley was our cleanup crew in front of Bailee and provided much-needed double teams and hustled to stop any fast breaks. As our flier during defensive corners, her quickness led to many cleared balls during corners.”

As the roster stands now, Salisbury will have just one senior next season in forward Maya Afif, who was part of the scoring threat on the forward line and provided experience for the younger players.

From there, the roster consisted of sophomores and freshmen, many of them playing substantive roles with the team and gaining that experience that the team lacked in 2023.

The split among the younger players was even, with the roster having seven sophomores and seven freshmen.

“The younger players started becoming more confident playing against more experienced and established teams and winning,” said Brennan, who is also the Salisbury varsity softball head coach. “Our younger players started trying new skills, which only improved our game play, and we started gelling as a team.”

Sophomores Sarah Beckage, Kendra Morgan and Emma Yakaitis complimented Afif on the forward line with Beckage picking up 10 goals on the year. Yakaitis could be in line for somewhat of a breakout season in 2024 as a junior.

Another sophomore, Gwyn DeFazio facilitated the offense with seven goals and seven assists and provided help on the defensive end for the Falcons. Fellow sophomore Meredith Kelley stepped up as an integral part of the Salisbury defense and showed big play talent and the ability to feed the offense with her passing skills.

Goalkeeper Caroline Gedney recorded eight shutouts for Salisbury in her sophomore season.

In the freshman class, Ellie Schneider’s passing was a key to the offense and Katie Carbone showed quickness to the ball and will play a larger role next season. Freshman Annie Niggel gained confidence, grew her skill set, and came up with some big plays against great teams.

The young team picked up some big wins as the season rolled on, but none were bigger than beating Moravian Academy for the first time in four seasons.

“As the season progressed, we learned to trust each other and became a team who could rely upon each other on and off the field,” said Brennan, who is looking forward to the future of field hockey at Salisbury. “Looking ahead to next season, we are excited to grow from where our team left off.

“We will return all of our starters except Bailee Neitz and Riley Knecht, so our hopes would be to return to districts again and perhaps be one of the top six teams in the league and play in the Colonial League tournament.”