Morgan Hill – Two seasons ago the Live Oak girls field hockey
team finished fifth in the Santa Teresa Division of the Blossom
Valley Athletic League with a league record of 4-6-4 (6-8-4
overall). Last season, under the direction of new coach and
longtime Live Oak English teacher Paula Haaser, the girls righted
their ship and made their first Central Coast Section appearance
since 2001 taking second in league with an 8-3-3 record (11-5-3
overall).
Morgan Hill – Two seasons ago the Live Oak girls field hockey team finished fifth in the Santa Teresa Division of the Blossom Valley Athletic League with a league record of 4-6-4 (6-8-4 overall).
Last season, under the direction of new coach and longtime Live Oak English teacher Paula Haaser, the girls righted their ship and made their first Central Coast Section appearance since 2001 taking second in league with an 8-3-3 record (11-5-3 overall).
The Acorns beat Saratoga in the first round of the Central Coast Section playoffs, but lost to St. Francis in the second round.
“We went to quadruple overtime and we won against Saratoga,” Haaser said. “It was a different story against St. Francis … they are like Monster house for field hockey, and they actually took the league, but it was just great to go to the CCS for the first time in seven years.”
Now, as a team to be feared, the Acorns return nearly all of last year’s starters, and are intent on again achieving success. Given the fact that all of her starters are returning players, CCS is absolutely in the near future, Haaser said.
“These girls are just phenomenal athletes, and many of them play three sports a year,” Haaser said. “When we look at soccer and softball, they are the ones getting the scholarships.”
Among the returning starters are captain and assist leader Sarah Locarnini, top goal scorer Kammi Tersini, and midfielder Robin Nelson.
Returning for their senior year, Tersini and Lexy Nuno, the second high goal scorer, will likely have many opportunities to punch goals into the back of the net.
Nelson again will be key to feeding balls to the forwards.
“The best thing about these girls, especially my Varsity, is that at minimum, 50 percent of them have a 4.0 (grade point average) or better,” Haaser said. “They’re all scholar athletes.”
Two junior players, Julia Hartl and Kourtney Kientzy, both have upwards of a 4.3 GPA.
“They’re all go-getters,” Haaser said. “Because they are such fine scholars they want to be pushed (in the classroom) and they want to do the writing.”
Haaser has a few of her players as English students also, which allows them to become even closer, she said.
Live Oak finished in second place last year in the Santa Teresa behind Los Altos, whom Haaser said they shouldn’t have lost to.
“It was nailbiter,” Haaser said. “We lost 2-1 by a goal.”
After finishing in first place Los Altos has moved up to the Mt. Hamilton division, but 12 of their players have graduated.
Live Oak on the other hand returns 11 players on a 15 person squad, and looks to dominate the Santa Teresa division.
Haaser isn’t worried about playing Prospect, who beat Live oak 1-0 with a short corner shot least year.
A short corner is a penalty shot that is reserved for penalties that take place within the circle by the goal.
“The biggest challenge in league will be Monte Vista … I think Monte Vista will be a pretty tight game for us.”
Live Oak is the only team in their league that still plays on a grass field, something Hasser said has worked to Live Oak’s advantage.
“All of our competitors have turf fields now … but we probably have the worst field, and it used to be the best,” she said. “It kind of works to our advantage because the kids are so used to playing on turf, and then they come play here and we really know our field.”
There are a lot of different drills that Live Oak does to practice just for games on the grass.
“Then there’s also some stuff that we need to throw into the practices to prepare for the turf, because the turf plays completely different,” Haaser said. “In turf the ball has so much more bounce.”
This year’s captains are Tanya Ferry, Robin Nelson and Holly Turay.
“They’re probably all looking at scholarships,” Haaser said. “They are so skilled, and it’s just incredible to see that level of athleticism in such feminine looking girls.”
“They look good and they play good,” she said. “You don’t get a team that’s that loaded very often … they’re just all around.”
