NCAC 20th Anniversary

Edited: 5/26/04

EARLHAM’S ALDRED, DENISON’S LANCASTER HEAD
20TH ANNIVERSARY FIELD HOCKEY TEAM

Earlham’s Rebecca Aldred and Denison’s Karen Lancaster head an impressive list of stellar athletes named to the North Coast Athletic Conference’s 20th Anniversary field hockey team. Aldred and Lancaster are the only two members of the squad still actively competing. The midfielders are two of 12 former NCAC Players of the Year represented on the 18-person team.

Aldred, the 2001 Offensive Player of the Year, leads all scorers after the completion of NCAC regular season play with 10 goals and nine assists for 29 points over 16 games (1.81 ppg). The senior finishes her four-year career with 28 goals and 17 assists for 73 points over 66 games (1.12 ppg). She has made two appearances on the All-NCAC first team after beginning her career as an honorable mention selection as a freshman in 2000.

Lancaster earned Player of the Year honors as a sophomore last fall. She helped lead a Denison offense which scored the second highest number of goals in conference play (24). The Big Red averaged 2.08 goals per game over 12 NCAC contests. Denison finished the regular season tied for second place in the standings and advanced to the inaugural North Coast field hockey tournament. She made her second consecutive appearance on the All-NCAC first team after being named the conference’s Newcomer of the Year as a freshman in 2001. This season, Lancaster has lead Denison to its second-straight NCAC tournament appearance.

Aldred and Lancaster are joined in the midfield by Oberlin’s Emily Norland, Wittenberg’s Jo-El Miller and Wooster’s Katie Doyle and Miriam Esber. Esber is the only midfielder on the squad with four All-NCAC nods. She was picked to the second team as a freshman in 1998, then followed with three straight first team selections. She led the Fighting Scots to their first outright NCAC field hockey championship and an NCAA tournament appearance in 2001. Miller earned all-league recognition three times in her career, a second-team honor as a sophomore in 1996, and two first-team nods over the next two seasons. Doyle and Norland both span the North Coast’s two decades, having begun their careers before 1993 season. Between 1993 - 1995, both made two All-NCAC first-team appearances, while Doyle also added a second-team appearance.

Denison owns two of the five front line spots. Wizzie Crocker and Elissa McCarthy join forwards Beth Korkin of Ohio Wesleyan, Amy Kraus of Wittenberg and Emily White of Wooster. All five forwards earned Offensive Player of the Year honors between 1993 and 2001. Four of the five were four-time All-NCAC award winners over the past 10 years. Crocker played two seasons in the NCAC’s second decade (1993, ‘94), earning first-team honors both times and finishing her career as the top offensive player of 1994. Kraus, one of only two members of the entire squad to be a four-time All-NCAC first-team honoree, was the league’s Newcomer of the Year as a freshman in 1994. She earned Offensive Player of the Year honors the following fall as a sophomore. She holds North Coast career records in goals (77) and points (165). White holds the NCAC single-season record for assists with 17 (2001).

Three NCAC Defensive Players of the Year head up the 20th anniversary backfield. Wooster’s Heather Heitsenrether and Kate Dunne lead the way, after earning the honor in 1997 and 2000, respectively. Dunne was named to the All-NCAC first-team in each of her playing seasons. She was also the conference’s Newcomer of the Year in 1998. Heitsenrether was voted to the honorable mention team as a freshman in 1994. She then was placed on the first team after her sophomore, junior and senior seasons. Ohio Wesleyan’s Mariah Dumanis, Oberlin’s Brianna Quinn, and Wittenberg’s Rebecca Russ round out the backs. Dumanis and Quinn each made four All-NCAC appearances, one each on the second-team and three on the first team. Russ was selected to the first team three straight seasons and was the last fall’s Defensive Player of the Year. A pair of goalkeepers completes the all-decade squad. Wittenberg’s Sara Hamilton and Oberlin’s Pam Walker each have three All-league awards to their credit. Both earned honorable mention nods as sophomores, they earned two consecutive selections to the first team to finish their careers. Hamilton, the 1998 Defensive Player of the Year, holds the NCAC single-season and career shutout records. She blanked opponents 17 times over the 1997 season and 30 times during her career. Walker was named the 2001 Defensive Player of the Year after leading the conference and NCAA Division III with a .938 saves percentage.

Wooster, which has won one of the past 10 North Coast titles, and has claimed three overall, leads the way with five players on the team. Wittenberg is next with four. The Tigers have won five of the past 10 championships, including last fall’s crown. Denison and Oberlin each placed three athletes on the team. The Big Red have won four North Coast championships between 1993 and 2002, and seven overall. Ohio Wesleyan placed two representative on the squad. The Battling Bishops have won two championships over the past 10 years, but have won eight overall - the most of any NCAC school. Earlham placed one athlete on the squad.

The North Coast Athletic Conference will be announcing 20th Anniversary teams in all 22 sports during the 2003-04 academic year. The NCAC was founded in 1983 and began competition in the fall of 1984. The North Coast’s commitment to equity, its broad base of athletic programs and an unwavering insistence on excellence in academics has served as a model for conferences throughout the country.

The NCAC’s 20th Anniversary teams were selected in each sport through balloting by present and former coaches and administrators. Athletes who participated in conference competition between the fall of 1993 through the spring of 2003 were eligible for selection.