Recovering from a rough start to this year’s season, the CHS Field Hockey team turned their fortunes around. After losing four out of their first six games, they finished their season winning eight of their final 12 games to conclude the season 10-7-1.

Recently, the girls defeated Bordentown during their senior night. Bordentown had already defeated the Lady Pirates 3-0 the week prior to the senior night game. Since then, the girls have worked harder in practice which seemed to pay off. The Pirates pulled through and defeated Bordentown in an overtime goal from freshman Hope Addlesberger, posting a final score of 2-1. Even rival team Holy Cross came out to watch the game since a Cinnaminson win and a Bordentown loss gave the division championship to Holy Cross.

The three senior captains are Shannon Forbes, Marissa Sozio and Alyssa Brauckmann. There are five other seniors that helped lead the season also. The senior leadership was very beneficial to the team this year, but the coaches tried to focus on getting underclassmen experience.

Captain Shannon Forbes is thinking about playing field hockey next year in college and showed her value this year by leading the team in goals with 11 and assists with five. Shannon tributes the team’s success to their practice habits along with the team’s hard work but most importantly, their chemistry. She claims “having chemistry together has helped us have a really good season. The fact that we drill so well together helps us improve everyday.”

Coach Quaranta, or Coach Q as the girls on the team call her, also agrees that their chemistry has contributed to the success of the team. She says “they are really close as a unit which does help them on the field.” The girls are known for organizing pasta dinners and having team sleep overs. Coach Quaranta, who grew up playing field hockey at Pennsbury High School and later played in college at The College of New Jersey, believes the success this season comes from good leadership and a strong mentality throughout the team.

Coach Quaranta says “we have excellent senior leadership along with all the girls wanting to do well. For them to have to desire to do well has really helped them to reach the next level of intensity that we’ve need in our division and in our season.”

The girls earned the sixth seed playoff spot and opened the playoffs against third seeded Haddon Township, who entered the game sporting a 15-4-1 record for the season.  Unfortunately, the girls couldn’t pull out an upset against the Haddon Township Hawks, who defeated the Pirates 5-1, ending their season on October 31.

Overall, this season was focused on senior leadership and gaining underclassmen experience. Next year will be a rough season after the loss of eight seniors but the experienced gained from the underclassmen will benefit the team as it transitions to a younger group of players led by sophomore goalie Lauren Friedrich, Addlesberger and others.