Here’s a question to ponder as football season nears an end and basketball season approaches: Which Temple team is in the best position to compete for a National Championship in the near and distant future?
If you guessed field hockey, you win the million-dollar prize.
The Temple field hockey team grabbed some headlines in late August with the announcement that former player Ann McKernan Robinson had pledged $1.1 million to the program. Robinson’s gift is the largest in the history of Temple athletics.
This weekend, the Owls are looking to grab the headlines once again by winning their first Atlantic 10 Championship since 1994. Doing so would earn a spot in a NCAA Tournament play-in game against the Ivy League champ. Temple last appeared in the NCAA Tournament in 1992.
Life is good for Coach Amanda Janney, now in her third year on North Broad Street.
“I love coaching field hockey and I love Philadelphia,” Janney said.
That’s two things you never expect to hear from a Texas native.
Janney grew up in Fort Worth, not exactly a field hockey hotbed. In fact, there isn’t one college field hockey team in Texas. But she stuck with her favorite sport through high school and eventually the college recruiters noticed.
“I was really very fortunate to get to go to Wake Forest,” Janney said.
And how. Playing for one of the nation’s top coaches (Jen Averill), at one of the top programs in the nation’s toughest conference (an ACC team has won the National Championship nine times in the past 12 years), Janney witnessed firsthand the blueprint for success – and helped make it happen.
During Janney’s playing career, Wake Forest became a Top 20 fixture. A year after she graduated, the Demon Deacons earned their first NCAA Tournament berth. In the seven years since then, they’ve made seven straight Final Four appearances and captured three NCAA titles.
Now Janney is trying to lift Temple to the level of her alma mater.
The Owls had plenty to brag about in the early years of NCAA-sponsored field hockey, making consecutive tournament appearances in 1982, 1983, and 1984 – when they earned their one and only Final Four berth. They returned to the NCAA field in 1990, 1991, and 1992.
But the head coach during the second NCAA run – Michele Madison – then left for a better-paying job at Michigan State. Madison’s replacement, Lauren Fuchs, simply didn’t get the job done.
Fuchs guided the Owls for 12 years. More often than not, the Owls were somewhere in the range of a .500 record during her tenure. They earned a spot in the Atlantic 10 Tournament nine times. But they never finished with a winning record. Not once.
“I’m not sure why they didn’t have more winning teams during that time,” Janney said. “Because they had some great athletes. I think they might have struggled sometimes in playing at the same level as their opponent. They might play awesome against a Top 5 team, lose 3-2 to Michigan, and then lose to a local neighbor. I think that’s been a big difference with this year’s team. We’ve tried to change that mindset.”
The Owls are 15-5 heading into Friday’s Atlantic 10 semifinal. Their progress has been steady and remarkable since Janney arrived in February 2005.
She inherited a veteran team and promptly lost six of her first seven games.
“There was definitely a transition period where we suffered a little bit learning the new system before we started to turn it around,” Janney said.
The turnaround was sudden, as the Owls closed the 2005 campaign by winning 10 of 13 regular season games. They finished 6-1 in A-10 play and carried all sorts of momentum into the tournament. Then came a 2-1 loss to UMass in the semifinals.
Janney didn’t have time to dwell on any disappointment, as she had to rebuild the entire roster heading into her second season. In 2006, the Owls had only one senior on the team, and they had three freshman starters. Half a dozen rookies saw regular action.
But the winning formula was already in place. The incredibly young squad finished 13-7. But again they lost in the A-10 semifinals, this time to league powerhouse Richmond. (The Spiders have won five straight A-10 titles.)
Now, it’s Temple’s time.
The Owls are still relatively young, so Janney leans heavily on her four seniors and four juniors. It helps that one of those seniors, midfielder Alli Lokey, ranks second in the nation with 18 goals, and one of those juniors, goalkeeper Erin Hanshue, ranks third in the nation in save percentage.
Recently, the Owls have cracked the Top 20. Coaches around the nation are starting to notice. But the polls aren’t what really count as the postseason approaches. According to the most recent RPI data, Temple is ranked No. 13 nationally. Sixteen teams will play in the NCAA Tournament. Could the Owls earn an at-large bid if they don’t win the A-10?
“We’re playing it like we need to win to get in,” Janney said.
She’s probably right. The NCAA field includes five automatic bids for conference champions (ACC, America East, Big East, Big 10, Colonial), plus three more bids for the play-in game winners (A-10 vs. Ivy, Northeast vs. Northern Pacific, Patriot vs. MAC). So that’s eight bids. The ACC is a lock for three at-large bids, as is the Big 10. There’s not much room beyond there.
Failing to win the A-10 would likely burst Temple’s bubble. And it won’t be easy.
As regular season champ, the Owls will face fourth place finisher St. Joseph’s. Oh yeah, the tournament is being held at St. Joe’s. Not to mention, Janney’s team just beat the Hawks, 4-2, in the regular season finale last weekend.
“One of our big challenges is to be ready to play St. Joe’s,” Janney said. “It’s not like we’re just going to be able to score four goals on them again. St. Joe’s is a good team.”
The other semifinal pits Richmond against UMass, which tied Temple with a 6-1 finish in league play. The Owls won the tiebreaker by virtue of their 2-1 victory over the Minutewomen.
For personal and historical reasons, Janney admits that her team has a preference in who they would like to play if they advance to the championship game.
“I know they would love to see Richmond again,” Janney said. “It would mean a lot to beat them.”
Why Richmond? Start with the fact that the Owls are 0-13 against the Spiders since they joined the A-10. Three times in the past four years, Richmond has knocked Temple out of the tournament – including last year, 2-1, in overtime.
The only team to beat the Owls in A-10 play this year – Richmond, of course, by that same 2-1 margin.
Regardless of this weekend’s results, Temple’s field hockey future has never looked brighter. Between Janney’s obvious coaching acumen, the school’s fertile recruiting territory, and the million-dollar boost, everything appears to be in place for a serious and sustained run at national prominence.
As in all college sports, it’s all about recruiting.
“Central Pennsylvania is one of the best field hockey areas in the country,” Janney said. “Almost half of the U.S. National Team is from Pennsylvania. There’s also some great field hockey across the river in South Jersey. So we’re surrounded by a great recruiting territory.”
Janney boasts that every member of her team is no more than two-and-a-half hours from home.
The X factor in Temple’s future success is Robinson’s gift, which will create an endowment fund that will provide for the program “in the long run” according to Janney.
The Owls already fund the NCAA-maximum 12 field hockey scholarships, so they don’t need any money there. There will be future facility enhancements. But the big thing for Janney and her student-athletes is the promise that the program will be funded in a major way for the long haul.
Competing against the top teams in the ACC is difficult. Janney has firsthand experience.
The Owls have already taken the first step, rising from perennial .500 and below territory to three straight winning seasons and NCAA Tournament contention. Are they ready to take the next step and can they reach the elite level and stay there?
That’s the million-dollar question.
Now, for the first time ever, Temple has a million-dollar answer.
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