The women’s field hockey team won their first match of the season last Thursday against Wells College. The Lady Mustangs outscored their opponents 3-1. Saturday's win against St. Vincent College by a 1-0 score improved their overall record to 2-4-0.            

“We’re definitely picking it up,” said Lauren Bordonaro, a freshman attacker from Pendleton, NY, who had a breakaway goal in Thursday’s win, “and we’re only going to get better.”

Bordonaro said the team’s early matches were against larger, more established programs – such as Skidmore College and Montclair State – and provided “a lot of good practice” though the Mustangs couldn’t manage a win.

This view is shared by others on the team, and by their head coach, Adair Milmoe. “We’re a young team,” said Milmoe, citing her club’s roster is entirely freshmen and sophomores, “but we’re playing against a lot of veteran clubs.” Like some other MSC sports teams, like men’s soccer and ice hockey, the field hockey program recently moved up from the National Junior College Athletic Association to NCAA Division III and still has a provisional or “probationary” status.

Milmoe said the team is slotted to become a full-fledged D-III member in 2010 but with proper NCAA compliance, it may happen a year earlier. Milmoe, who is in her second year coaching at Morrisville, said it is definitely a challenge to play against more developed, and often nationally-ranked, teams but that it is a great opportunity for the program to grow. “We’re taking our lumps along the way,” she said, “but we’ll only get stronger and stronger.”

Freshman defender Jennifer May said she agrees with her coach’s assessment. May, an education major from Penfield, NY, said playing against nationally-ranked teams wasn’t easy but it helped the team work on its problem areas – like scoring goals. She said now that the team has learned how to attack more proficiently, more wins will likely come as well. “I believe we will keep on scoring and improving our stats,” she said.

Both May and Bordonaro said the team hopes to continue to win and finish at least in the top three in SUNYAC – which would undoubtedly boost morale and recruiting.

Milmoe agreed, and added that it was a pleasure just to watch her team work together and grow. “I’m really proud of what this team has accomplished so far,” said Milmoe. “This is a great group of ladies to coach.”