Ursinus field hockey ended their season with an impressive Centennial Conference and NCAA run, and collected many individual and team accolades.
The Bears ended the season with a winning record, going 13-7 overall and 8-2 in conference. They made it to the Centennial Conference final for the first time since 2016 and their first NCAA tournament since 2021. However, the team ultimately fell to #5 Johns Hopkins in the Centennial Conference championship and Rowan in the first round of the NCAA tournament, bringing their season to an end.
The Bears had compiled a monumental stat sheet. They had a total of 57 goals and averaged 2.85 goals a game. Comparatively, their opponents averaged 1.45 goals a game. The team took 278 shots, averaging 13.9 shots per game. They also collected 153 offensive penalty corners over the season. As far as penalty strokes, they went 3-3, with Lauren Briesch ‘26 converting them all.
The Bears experienced many statistical highs in their season with their best game coming against McDaniel. They earned 22 points, had 9 goals, and 4 assists. The Bears had 17 shots on goal. They earned 36 fouls and 16 offensive penalty corners.
The team also took home multiple awards including All Conference Honors, Sportsmanship Award, coaching staff of the year, offensive and defensive players of the year.
Amanda Groeling ‘25 earned the Centennial Conference Sportsmanship Award.
Maeve Montgomery ‘25 and Mary Lauren Franz ‘25 earned defensive and offensive player of the year honors, respectively. The seniors also were named All-Centennial First Team and the National Senior Team for Division 3 field hockey.
Montgomery held down the back with composure and strong leadership. She was the Centennial leader in defensive saves with six.
Franz was unstoppable on the forward line. Franz was in the top three in the conference for shots and goals. She had 75 shots, 57 shots on goal, and 16 goals as well as four game winning goals.
Marie Brainard ‘27 and Adriana Palladinetti ‘26 were named All Centennial Second Team. Brainard was a powerhouse this season with her wicked shots. She made the top five for shots, goals, and shots on goal in the conference. She had 66 shots with 38 on goal, scoring 11 goals this season.
Palladinetti was a brick wall in the cage. She made out of this world saves with grace and athleticism. Palladinetti was in the top three of the conference for saves with 96 saves and a save percentage of 0.774. She averaged 4.80 saves per game.
Along with sweeping the conference with awards, the Bears fought to earn the second seed for the Centennial Conference tournament. This helped them earn a bye for the first round of tournament play.
The Bears had a fight mentality throughout the season. They fought together when facing every shot, every corner, every free hit, and every play. Their mentality helped lead them to a championship game in one of the most challenging conferences as well as a bid to the NCAA tournament.
Head coach Janelle Benner stated, “There are two moments this past season that stand out … that showed the type of grit and fight that this team has. The first was early in the season when we were down 5-1 to Lynchburg in the 3rd quarter and rallied back to score 3 quick goals in the third and fourth quarters. Although we didn’t walk away with the win that day, it showed so much about what this team was capable of even when things weren’t going our way.”
“The second moment was again a rally from behind in the Centennial Conference Championship to force overtime and ultimately beat F&M to advance to the CC Championship game for the first time since 2016.”
“For next season, I’m excited to see so many returning players step into new roles to build on where we left off this season”