Coming off a long-awaited preseason win against the Guelph Gryphons, the Gaels Field Hockey team is looking to adapt their playstyle to secure another win for their season’s records.
On Sept. 16 at 1:00 p.m., the Gaels will line up on Tindall Field against the Gryphons. In the last 15 years, Queen’s has lost 19 games to the Gryphons and tied three. This season, the Gaels are looking to change the narrative.
One of the major reasons the Gaels haven’t found success in the past two seasons is because of a change imposed by OUA. The league is now split into two divisions, with the stronger teams such as U of T and York in the same league as Queen’s.
Head Coach Rachelle Seguin knows her team must adapt, outlining some of the ways they have been looking to improve.
“We’ve done a couple of things in of some of our returning players. We’ve moved them around on the field to increase our strength in the defensive line,” Seguin said in an interview with The Journal. “We are using a different formation on the field to try and fix some of the issues that we noticed last year in our game play.”
Throughout the offseason, the Gaels have been working on improving their defensive skillset.
“We train two days a week in the gym playing indoor field hockey,” Seguin said. “It really helps with the defensive skillset and maintaining control of the ball because the ball moves so quickly on a gym floor.”
The team participated in an exhibition tournament at University of Toronto last weekend and posted successful scores. Though the team lost 0-1 against both the York Lions and Waterloo Warriors, they tied with the undefeated U of T Varsity Blues.
Another confidence booster came for the team when they beat Guelph 2-1. Seguin said the team was optimistic after exhibition weekend.
“Based on how we did, everyone is very optimistic,” she said. “Those are four very strong opponents that means we have a very good shot at doing well this year.”
With recent field time and win over Guelph, the team is now preparing for the challenges they’ll face at their home opener on Saturday.
“I think it was an unexpected loss for Guelph this weekend, so I think that they are going to come out stronger,” she said. “We might expect to win right now because of that result, it’s going to be a challenge for our team to make sure we’re really focusing on what we’re doing rather than being overconfident.”
In their exhibition games against U of T, the Gaels tested out a new defensive format. With good results, they plan on utilizing this throughout the season. Now, they’re working on adding a better offensive-style to achieve maximum success.
“Defensively we’re looking stronger,” Seguin said. “We’ll definitely need to be able to finish.”
With the recent formatting changes and addition of 10 first-year students and two new assistant coaches, Seguin thinks the team has a great formula to achieve a better record than seen in recent years.
This year, the Gaels will face off against the Western Mustangs, University of Toronto Varsity Blues, and McGill Martlets. Information on these games, along with the Tindall Field Spectator Guide, can be found on the Queen’s Athletics and Recreation website.
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