GRANVILLE, Ohio (August 31, 2022) – The Denison University field hockey team is set for an exciting 2022 season competing to finish at the top of the North Coast Athletic Conference standings.

After seeing their runs of three straight NCAC regular-season and tournament championships both came to an end in 2021, the Big Red will enter 2022 with renewed energy and excitement for the year ahead.

Coach Soteriades enters her 23rd year as the Head Field Hockey Coach at Denison in 2022. Since taking over the program in 2000, Soteriades has won 214 games, has been named the NCAC Coach of the Year five times, and has helped guide her team to five NCAC regular-season titles, four NCAC Tournament championships and five NCAA Division III Tournament appearances. She is the program's all-time leader in wins and is the longest-tenured coach in Denison field hockey history. Joining Soteriades on the bench in 2022 will be a new face to the Big Red in assistant coach Kelsey Devine, who comes to Denison after earning two all-conference honors as a player and then coaching for three years at SUNY Brockport.

After their 2020 season was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Big Red returned to the field in 2021 and finished 10-8 overall and 6-2 in the conference while tying for second place in the NCAC regular-season standings. The Big Red qualified for the NCAC Tournament for the 12th season in a row and advanced to their fourth straight NCAC Tournament Championship game before coming up short by a score of 2-1 in overtime against Ohio Wesleyan University. Junior Cary Mauck (2 goals) was the lone Denison selection to the all-conference first-team, and was also named second-team all-region. The Big Red will also return senior Madeleine Hunt, who was named second-team all-conference in 2021. Mauck helped lead a Denison defense that posted seven shutouts in 2021 and held its opponent to one goal or less 11 times in 18 games while Hunt led the Big Red in goals (7), assists (4) and points (18).

Other returners looking to help the Big Red compete for a championship in 2022 will be senior Meg Baylis (2 goals); juniors Abigail Hano (4 goals, 3 assists), Ana Ortiz DeRosa (2 goals, 2 assists) and Grace Lock (2 goals); and sophomore Kristin Kelley (3 goals, 2 assists). Hano was named to the NCAC All-Tournament team a year ago while finishing second on the team in assists and tying for third in goals.

Key losses for the Big Red in 2022 will be seniors Maya Tumiwa (5 goals, 2 assists), AC Veith (4 goals, 2 assists), and Maren Kraak (10-8, 5 shutouts, 62 saves). Veith was named to the NCAC All-Tournament Team for the third year in a row after earning MVP honors in 2018 and 2019 while Kraak made her debut on the all-tournament team after switching to goalie as a senior and starting all 18 games. Tumiwa, meanwhile, leaves Denison as a two-time honorable mention all-conference player.

Denison will open up its new season at home at 11 a.m. on Saturday, September 3, against Roanoke College before heading to the Northeast for a weekend in Maine against the University of New England (Sept. 10) and Bates College (Sept. 11).

Starting on Saturday, September 24, against DePauw University, Denison will host three home games in a row as the Big Red will start off conference play at home during Big Red Weekend by hosting Kenyon College on Saturday, October 1, before hosting Centre College the very next day.

Senior Day will be at 11 a.m. on Sunday, October 9, against Allegheny College before the Big Red wrap up the regular season at DePauw on Saturday, October 29.

To follow the action all season long, please check out our Live Events page for all of the video and live stats details: https://denisonbigred.com/coverage