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United Airlines Field Hockey League Resumes Play at MIT

Colorado Springs -- The United Airlines Field Hockey League, U.S. Field Hockey’s elite-level summer competition series, resumes play this June 15-17 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge. Games are scheduled beginning at 5 p.m. Friday and continuing from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday. The weekend's schedule concludes with morning games on Sunday.
      The second weekend of the double round-robin tournament will produce the top four teams that will advance to the League semifinals, June 30 at the University of Maryland. The championship and consolation games are scheduled for July 1 at Maryland.

      The Metro Rush, led by NCAA Player of the Year Marina DiGiacomo and U.S. National Team goalkeeper Peggy Storrar, currently lead the United League standings with 15 points and a 5-1-0 record. The defending champion Southern Charm and 2000 runner-up Midwest Cyclones are tied for second place with 4-1-1 records followed by the Tidewater Tempest and New England Eclipse with 2-3-1 marks, the Philadelphia Fury at 1-3-2 and the Pennsylvania Pride at 0-6-0.

"Our team is really having a lot of fun this year," said Rush head coach Beth Bozman.   "They really are a team and enjoy playing together.  It's great to see this much talent and enthusiasm mesh. "

The head coach at Princeton University, Bozman has coached in the United League since its inception in 1998, and sees a more balanced league in 2001.

"The competition is good and there appears to be much more parity than in previous years. You had to be sharp for every team."

With a loss to the Charm as the only blemish on the team's record, the Rush raced through the remainder of the first round by outscoring its opponents 10-1.

"Each game we played, we got a little better," said Bozman "There were a couple of games when we really found our rhythm.  We're really striving to play as a cohesive team --that's our goal. We think that will work for us."

The NCAA Player of the Year at Old Dominion, DiGiacomo ranks second in the league in scoring with five goals while U.S. U21 member Ilvy Friebe added three goals to help push the Rush to the top of the League standings.

"Marina and Ilvy scored the most goals, but a lot of people contributed to their scoring opportunities," said Bozman. "Val Coyle, who worked so hard off the ball and drew the defense; Adrienne Yoder, who created strength and distribution in the middle; and Mimi Smith (US National Team), who anchored and organized our defense. And clearly, Peggy Storrar and Kelly Baril, who split time in the cage were outstanding."

            Along with the Rush standouts, the first weekend produced other league stars including scoring leader Kim Miller (US National Team) of the Tidewater Tempest who scored four goals in a 4-0 win over the Charm. High schoolers Kelly Dostal (US National Team) of the Eclipse and Alexandra Kyser of the Cyclones also added their names to the scoring column with goals. Not to be outdone, the country's top collegiate coaches put on a clinic for league opponents as the Charm's Jen Averill (head coach Wake Forest), Cyclone's Marcia Pancratz (head coach Univ. of Michigan), Fury's Tracey Griesbaum (head coach Univ. of Iowa) and Cyclone's Sheryl Johnson (head coach Stanford) combined for 10 goals in the first weekend of play.

      Rosters of the United League teams feature members of the U.S. national team, US Under-21, Under-18 squads as well as 11 Olympians, 21 collegiate All-America selections and 13 high school All-America selections.