SOUTH HADLEY — After playing a junior varsity schedule for the past two years, the South Hadley field hockey team is back at the varsity level in 2025. At the end of the 2021 season, the Tigers had 10 seniors graduate, leaving only a handful of returning players for 2022. That year, South Hadley rostered 12 middle schoolers, and tallied just one win with a very young group.
So the next two seasons the Tigers decided to put the varsity program on hold, and let those young, inexperienced players learn the skills and speed of the game on JV. Fast forward to this fall, and now head coach Nicole Casolari and her South Hadley squad are more than ready for life on the big stage.
The Tigers hung toe-to-toe with Smith Academy in their season opener last week before losing on a last-minute goal in the fourth quarter. South Hadley is still young (only one senior), but the Tigers are confident and have waited a long two years for their chance to play varsity.
South Hadley will play in the Valley League with Smith Academy, Amherst, Northampton, Southwick, Holyoke and Belchertown.
“Our big team goal is to make it into the Western Mass. tournament this year,” Casolari said. “Being in the top four of our league would be huge. I think going from JV-level games to varsity, there’s going to be a learning curve, and just the maturity of the players. But I’m excited for it, and our first game showed that our players are up for the challenge.”
Casolari didn’t have one player to pinpoint when asked who she expects to stand out this year. She’s been extremely impressed with how her team has come together already so early into the season, and says the Tigers’ biggest strength is their chemistry with one another. Everyone knows what to expect from the person next to them.
Sam Harrison is a sophomore midfielder who scored South Hadley’s first goal of 2025 and is somebody the Tigers will lean on to do a little bit of everything this year. Lily Harrington is Harrison’s running mate in the midfield, Ella Haber can play multiple positions and Casolari says she’s naturally good at all of them, and Logan Muskus serves as a stable stopper on defense.
The lone senior on the team is Elise Gingras, and ever since she got to South Hadley she’s been the only one in the Tigers program who’s a member of the Class of 2026. Gingras is a terrific leader, and she understands that even if South Hadley doesn’t achieve its goals this season, she’s helping build the program for years to come by mentoring the underclassmen.
“I’m so excited about this year and the years to come,” Casolari said. “Elise and I have joked about it for a while, that she is the Class of 2026 for field hockey. But it’s special to see this group come together and to know they’re going to continue on. The first day of practice we had the turf filled for the first time in probably five years. We have full teams for both varsity and JV. It gave me chills to have the entire field filled again.”
South Hadley field hockey is back, and the Tigers have healthy numbers at the varsity, JV and youth levels. They won’t be going anywhere.
Amherst
The Hurricanes have a large roster as Sarah Bugbee enters year No. 4 as head coach, and on that roster are 10 seniors returning after a solid 2024 campaign that saw Amherst finish with an 8-6-2 record. It fell in the Division 2 preliminary round to Melrose in a 1-0 heartbreaker.
The ‘Canes have lots of firepower back and are ready to take the next step in the newly constructed Valley League. Senior Aria Haupt is back after leading the team in goals last year and sophomore Anne Haugjaahabink had a productive freshman season and will take on a bigger role offensively.
Elizabeth Woodruff will hold things down in the midfield while defender Lindsay Franz brings a senior leadership to the back line that is going to be key for the ‘Canes. Amherst defeated Northampton 4-0 in its season opener last week.
Belchertown
Perhaps the best field hockey team in Hampshire County lost only two seniors from its County League champion and Western Massachusetts Class B runner-up squad a season ago. The Orioles are coached by Dina Brunetti, now in her third year, and have won 11 or more games in her first two campaigns.
With nearly all of its contributors back in the lineup in 2025, Belchertown is primed for another deep postseason run. Edith Audette, a Franklin Pierce commit, comes in for her senior year and has a good chance of tallying her 100th point, and senior Mya Philpott had a great season in the midfield last year and is expected to do the same. Kina Roy tallied 25 points as a freshman in 2024 and is Philpott’s running mate in the midfield.
Lila Roy played forward for the Os the past two seasons, but will step into an entirely new role as Belchertown’s goalie. Brunetti has been impressed by her quick adjustment to the position. It’ll be Mary DiBona, Emma Kornbluth and Dory Keefe holding down the Belchertown defense.
“We are looking forward to an exciting season with hopes for a chance at the Western Mass. title again,” Brunetti said.
Frontier
Watch out for the Redhawks again this fall.
Frontier — which won the Western Mass. Class C for a third consecutive season last fall — has a number of young contributors who are back and ready to take another step forward.
Macy DeMaio and Ashlie Galenski are returning seniors who are scoring threats up top, Lauryn Kalinowski is a returning senior who can mix between the midfield and defense while Kate Walker is a returning defender.
Haly Doucette-Kaplan and Addie Harrington are two juniors who can give defenses trouble up top, Rowan Reilly is a talented player who can switch between midfield and the forward spots, Elsa Brown and Harper Modestow will play in the midfield while Amelia Bouchard returns as a talented defender.
Hampshire
It was an up-and-down season for the Raiders in 2024, but they finished as strong as any team in the region — going 3-1-1 over their final five games. Head coach Susannah Bastek returns for her sixth year as head coach of Hampshire and is faced with the tall task of replacing star forward Chloe Moynihan, who graduated last spring.
Neely Rondeau is the first in line to help with that, as the junior forward showed flashes last season and will have a larger responsibility this year. Madelyn Layman (defense), Lily Connor (forward) and Holly Kowalcyzk (midfield) are play makers at each level that should make an impact as well. Goalies Raeghan Koske and Grace Layman step up to replace the talented Rylie Simmons.
“Preseason [showed] that this group of players is really meshing and working very well together,” Bastek said. “We are hoping this teamwork will lead to wins this season. We have two new, young goalies who are working really hard to fill some very big shoes. With strong captains and a growing sense of unity, this team is ready to take on the season.”
Holyoke
The Purple Knights are looking to bounce back after a 6-11 season in 2024, and they’ll do so in a new league after transitioning from the County League to the Valley League this fall. Head coach Francesca Ceppetelli is back patrolling the sidelines and will have new faces to work with after graduating almost all of her production from a year ago.
Ivan Rivera, Grace Philips and Lily Tapion are early candidates to be Holyoke’s core group of play makers in 2025, but it’s still very early as the young Knights hope to see players emerge as the year progresses.
Northampton
Perhaps no team has gone through as much roster turnover as the Blue Devils this season, as they graduated 10 players in the spring. One staple that’s returning is goalie Charlotte Johnson-Mersack, who has a high chance of hitting 500 career saves in 2025. The fourth-year starter is one of the team’s leaders and is a rock in the cage for Northampton.
Aside from her, there are five other varsity returners. Jordan Sage, Naama Greenwald, Avery Koloszyc, Ella Nykorchuk and Aofie Broussard are those coming back, and head coach Meshia Begin says they all have a shared understanding of what’s expected of them this season. Newcomers Ro Coates, Riley Sylvester and Ada Bellmare are all ready to step up and play sizable roles right away.
“We’re excited to see what this connected group can do to bring everyone together,” Begin said. “Our identity is built around our passion to learn the game and grow together.”
Smith Academy
A trio of schools are coming together to make up the Falcons program this season, as Hopkins and Smith Vocational co-op with Smith Academy for head coach Karlie Guimond’s first season as head coach — replacing a legendary field hockey figure in Judy Strong. Guimond starred at Smith Academy before playing collegiately at Smith College.
After going 8-9-2 last year, the Falcons lost just one senior and have a strong nucleus of players coming back for more in 2025. Senior captain Marissa Belina is a force on the defense, junior captain Bella Gavron is back after a successful sophomore season where she had the second-most assists on the team in 2024, and sophomore Bella Bramucci is a talented midfielder who Smith Academy will lean on this fall.
“[We have] three schools coming together to work together, dream big and have
fun,” Guimond said.
