LANCASTER, Pa. – The Franklin & Marshall field hockey team enters the 2024 season with the last two Centennial Conference Rookies of the Year along with back-to-back double-digit win seasons and appearances in the Centennial Conference semifinals. The Diplomats will be aiming even higher this fall as they have made 15 trips to the national tournament, with eight of those appearances coming since the 2011 season. The most recent trip to the national tournament came during the 2019 season when F&M advanced to the national championship game. Despite the loss of All-Americans Carolina Riley and Darby, six starters return from last year's team as the squad sets its sights on the national tournament.

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2024 Diplomats

Forward

Senior Jessica Miller and junior Keira Boensch have been consistent threats for the Diplomats' offense since arriving in Lancaster. Miller has started 44 of her 53 career appearances and has found the back of the cage 21 times during her F&M career. She is the team's second-leading returning scorer after tallying eight goals while starting all 19 games a season ago. Boensch also started all 19 games last season, registering three goals and three assists. For her career, she now has nine goals and five assists.

Senior Grace Fass is another experienced scoring option who has played in 39 career matches. Fass has five career goals to her credit and recorded the first two assists of her collegiate career during the 2023 season. Sophomore Caroline Krisko appeared in nine matches during her rookie campaign, while junior Isabelle Allen has also made nine career appearances. Following her time on the women's track & field team during the spring semester, Brianna Coolican returns for her sophomore season after adding an assist to the offensive efforts as a rookie. Molly Donadoni (Ashburn, Va.) and Ava Lofgren (Berwyn, Pa.) join the team as first-years looking to make their impact on the attacking third.

Midfield

Caitlin Hoover led the team in scoring last season with nine goals and two assists during a breakout rookie season. She started 17 of her 19 appearances, registering her second of two hat tricks during the Centennial Conference first round victory versus Ursinus last fall. Classmate Hannah Fitzgerald also started in the midfield during five of her 17 appearances, recording her first collegiate point against Alvernia.

Seniors Ella Page and Abby D'Anjolell have the most collegiate experience in the midfield with 45 and 33 career appearances, respectively. Page played in 16 matches last season, registering her first collegiate point with an assist against Muhlenberg. D'Anjolell also saw playing time in 10 games, while sophomore Ally Walk saw action in five matches during her rookie season. Three first-years: Megan Dadio (Easton, Pa.), Bella Konchar (Centreville, Va.), and Maya Rorick (Burke, Va.) will bolster this unit in the transition game.

Defense

Junior Kat Thistlewaite has earned All-Centennial Conference recognition during each of her first two seasons with the Diplomats. She was a second-team selection a year ago after starting all 19 matches and making two defensive saves. Thistlewaite was also named the conference's rookie of the year in 2022 on her way to earning honorable mention All-CC accolades. Alison McCarey is the veteran of the group as the senior has started 35 of her 46 career appearances, including all 18 contests during which she played last year. McCarey has made eight defensive saves during her career, half of which she made as a junior while also scoring and assisting on the first goals of her collegiate career.

The backline should have plenty of experience on its side as seniors Annie Malatesta and Riley Klopp has played in 29 and 18 matches, respectively. Malatesta made three of her five career defensive saves last fall and also got into the act offensively with three goals scored. Sophomore Sarah Weitzman appeared in 15 matches, making three starts as a rookie. Juniors Sonia Roberto and Grace Fitzgerald, along with sophomore Aoife Nerz has also been instrumental during several Diplomat victories since stepping on campus. Two first-years: Caroline Roschein (Westport, Conn.) and Melissa Sessler (Landsdale, Pa.) join this position group for their rookie seasons.

Goalie
Sophomore Meghan Dole started 18 games during her rookie season on her way to Centennial Conference Rookie of the Year and first-team all-conference honors before later garnering second-team all-region accolades. Dole saved 81.2 percent of the shots she faced while allowing just 1.24 goals per game. She returns as the incumbent in goal who made 10 saves on three different occasions, including 18 against nationally-ranked Christopher Newport.

Seniors Sydney Kuehn and Jorja Pastore round out an experienced trio of goalies. Pastore has started five games during her F&M career and allowed less than one goal per game (0.80 GAA) in 75-plus minutes of game action last season. Kuehn did not allow a goal as she saw time during two games last year.

The Road Ahead
Franklin & Marshall will be challenged right from the start as it opens the season with three consecutive matches against teams that advanced to the NCAA Division III Tournament. That tough opening stretch starts on the road at Susquehanna in the season opener on Friday, August 30 at 4:30 p.m. before a trip to Cortland, N.Y. just two days later. The home opener is set for Saturday, September 7 against Christopher Newport.

The fourth NCAA Tournament team from last year on the Diplomats' 2024 schedule will be returning national runner-up Johns Hopkins during the regular season finale. Franklin & Marshall will have the opportunity to play each of the other Centennial Conference playoff teams from 2023 on Tylus Field, with Dickinson (Oct. 2), Bryn Mawr (Oct. 5), Ursinus (Oct. 16), and Swarthmore (Oct. 23) also making the conference tournament last fall. Franklin & Marshall defeated both Ursinus (twice) and Bryn Mawr while those teams were nationally-ranked a season ago, including a 4-2 win against the Bears during the first round of the Centennial Conference Tournament.

In the Polls
Franklin & Marshall earned 77 voting points in the Centennial Conference preseason poll during a vote of the conference's head coaches. That earned the Diplomats the No. 3 spot in the preseason ranking, with Johns Hopkins and Swarthmore garnering the top two positions. The coaches are expecting a similar playoff field in 2024 as Bryn Mawr, Ursinus, and Dickinson were voted to the fourth through sixth spots in the preseason release. You can view the complete Centennial Conference preseason poll here.

The Diplomats will also started the 2024 season among the top-ranked teams in the nation as they were voted No. 18 in the National Field Hockey Coaches Association (NFHCA) preseason top 25. F&M earned 421 points in the poll and was the second-highest rated Centennial Conference school. The complete NFHCA preseason poll is available here.

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Record Book Watch (active players in career top 20 in school history)

Meghan Dole

• Saves per game: 12th (5.28)
• Goals against avg: 12th (1.24)
• Saves: 14th (95)
• Most wins: 16th (11)
• Goalie Games started: 16th (18)
• Goalie Games played: 19th (18)

Caitlin Hoover

• Penalty strokes made: t-10th (1)
• Goals per game: 16th (0.47)

Annie Malatesta

• Penalty strokes made: 4th (3)
• Defensive saves: 9th (5)

Alison McCarey

• Defensive saves: t-4th (8)

Jessica Miller

• Game-winning goals: t-10th (10)

Kat Thistlewaite

• Defensive saves: t-15th (2)