Tested Hill School ready for postseason
With a roster that ranks among the top high school teams in the country, the Hill School field hockey team can make things look easy at times.
To keep her team sharp, head coach Jen Weissbach put together a nationally-ranked schedule. The hope was to get her team prepped for a deep postseason run.
“They love to be challenged,” Weissbach said. “They want to play good teams. Having teams that aren’t pushing us on the field as much is challenging, so I think it keeps our high-level kids engaged. Playing great teams is the only way we’re going to be prepared to make a state tournament run and the schedule this season is doing just that.”
The most recent test for the Rams came Friday against Oak Knoll, ranked No. 1 nationally by Max Field Hockey. In a matchup of nationally ranked teams, the Rams were overpowered by Oak Knoll, 5-0, for just their second loss of the season. The other was a 4-3 defeat to No. 8 West Essex (N.J.) on Oct. 5.
The Rams had a chance to respond quickly with a Mid-Atlantic Prep League contest against Mercersburg Academy on Saturday, and respond they did, scoring five goals in the game’s first 18 minutes on the way to a 10-3 win and improving to 16-2.
Josephine Palde and Kennedy Cliggett tallied hat tricks for Hill. Sarah Rogalski, Rease Coleman, Maddy Orsi and Emily Rakos also scored, while Ashley Kling and Logan Clouser both tallied two assists.
“We just had to fire back with us as a team, passing combinations, stuff like that,” Cliggett said. “We knew were defeated (Friday), and we had to come back together as a team.”
“From that game, I think we just needed to work harder and play together as a team,” Palde added. “I think today we brought that. We passed the ball together, got really good shots off, which was really good. It was something we needed to do (Friday).”
Weissbach said before the season this team was one of the most talented groups the school has had. Palde, Orsi, Clouser and Alex Conway returned as all-MAPL players from 2018, and the Rams added Cliggett, Rogalski and Coleman, who came to Hill with accolades of their own.
With so much talent, the key would be how the group came together. A 4-3 win over No. 4 Episcopal Academy, the reigning Pennsylvania Independent Schools Athletic Association champion, in their opener showed that wouldn’t take long.
The Rams, who rank No. 4 in Max Field Hockey’s Pennsylvania Region Top 20 rankings and No. 9 nationally, started the season on an 11-game win streak, which included Top 25 victories against Academy of Notre Dame and Sacred Heart Academy (KY).
“I’m very happy where we’re at as a team,” Weissbach said. “They’ve come together even better than I probably imagined and pretty quickly early on. I think it started with that big win in our first game of the season.”
Aiding the group’s chemistry is the fact that a number of the Rams play club field hockey together.
Clouser, Cliggett, Palde, Rogalski and goalkeeper Hayley Gable play together on the WC Eagles Field Hockey Club with Coleman set to join them this year. Conway (2020), Orsi (2022) and 2023 players McKay Allain, Rylee Bauer and Kerry Elliott play for the club as well.
“There is a new person in each line,” Cliggett said. “Sarah is new for the defensive, Rease is new for the midfield and I’m new for the forwards. We all flow really well with each of our lines. Even though we’re new, it feels like we’ve been here forever with the girls.”
Hill won a Mid-Atlantic Prep League title last season before advancing to the PAISAA state semifinals. Saturday’s win set up a MAPL championship game with Lawrenceville next Saturday.
After that, the Rams hope to go on the PAISAA title Weissbach prepared them for this season.
“We wanted to stick together as a team,” Palde said. “Last year, I think we kind of lost our focus and got distracted a little bit. Our winning streak brought us up a little bit this year. We’ve been defeated before but we come back better.”
