The Raiders have high hopes for its 2017 season, with a new coaching staff, seniors Caroline Schaefer and Molly Klare at the helm and (lucky number) 13 new first-years, the team has promising prospects for a winning season. There is a lot of room for improvement; the 2016 season, while better than their 2015 season (0-15), only collected a single win.

Maroon-News: How was preseason?

Caroline Schaefer: Really good. Started off really hard with the two-a-days; a lot of practicing and hard work. In terms of physical work, it has gone down a bit and become more mental. More technical drills like presses and corners and things like that.

MN: How was the scrimmage against the University of Toronto Varsity Blues?

CS: The weather added a nice touch, pouring rain, thunderstorms and a tornado watch. Can’t control it but we ended up getting on the field after a delay. We didn’t win but it was a really good game. It was a great chance to allow everyone on the team to get some playing time. It’s really great to have the first-years because they haven’t had the same previous seasons with us where losing every game seems to get kind of taxing. Our 13 first-years make up half of our team so they are a huge presence. So when the other team scored the first goal they didn’t even think twice about it. You could see there is a big mentality change and you can see the improvements.

MN: How is the new coaching staff?

CS: Our head coach came last year in the spring and this year, we just got a new assistant coach [Lexi Kavanaugh]. She played at Ball State, which is really good. [Our coaching staff is] really good and they totally believe in us and clearly have a really different approach. Fresh blood has made such a difference because once a team stops listening to their coaches because they don’t trust them and don’t respect them, that’s when it’s time to change things around. So now we have this new coach who respects us, we respect her, she’s so reasonable and such a fair coach.

MN: Prospects for the upcoming season? Are you going to be good? Win more than one game?

CS: We’re absolutely going to win more than one game. We’re so excited for Patriot League games. Our overall goal, especially for the seniors, is to make it to the championships. For field hockey, it’s different; there are only seven teams in the Patriot League, you have to beat three Patriot League teams in order to go to the tournament which has four teams. So basically you’re in the semi-finals if you make it to the tournament. We just call it the championship even though it’s not. You only have to beat three teams out of the seven teams you play. It would be so great if we made it, because [my] first year we went to the tournament so it would be so great to start and end on positive notes. It’s definitely possible and I’m really excited, especially if we keep making the strides that we have been making.

MN: What is your favorite and least favorite thing of the preseason?

CS: My least favorite was running our two hardest run tests in the same day, one in the morning, one in the afternoon. A lot of anxiety going on. The first test was the Gauntlet, which is one mile, one minute break, half mile, one minute break, quarter mile, one minute break, eighth mile, one minute break, eighth mile and done. The second one was 5 by 300 meter shuttles. My favorite was when we went to the boathouse as a team and it was really fun.

Contact Charlotte Redican at [email protected].