St. Joe’s field hockey blanked the top-seeded Richmond 2-0 to secure a fifth consecutive Atlantic 10 Championship Nov. 8. This rematch comes after a regular season loss to the Spiders Oct. 17.
Triple-threat junior back Milou Kluyt earned A-10 Defensive Player of the Year, Second Team All-Conference and All-Academic Honors Nov. 5. In her third A-10 Championship win, Kluyt earned Most Outstanding Player for the tournament.
“All our work we put in this season finally paid off,” Kluyt said. “We faced a lot of adversity this year, but we finally showed that we are able to beat this and beat teams.”
Starting the game off strong, Kluyt scored her fifth goal in three games to put the Hawks on the board in less than five minutes into the first quarter. The team ended the second quarter shutting out the Spiders. The Hawks defense allowed two shots, with fifth-year goalkeeper Paige Kieft saving a goal to secure a shutout.
One of five Hawks to earn tournament honors, senior midfielder/back Emily Tammaro earned All-Championship honors for two assists and one goal in the Nov. 6 game against VCU and one assist in the Nov. 8 Hawks win. Tammaro said the team’s regular season loss to Richmond was motivation to prepare them for the A-10 rematch.
Hardships this season have allowed the Hawks to “lean on each other and just connect,” Tammaro said.
Head coach Hannah Prince feels “amazing” about the win, especially because players are unafraid to set their goals higher in order to achieve more than what they think they can.
“It’s a pride thing, it’s a relentless attitude thing, it’s a hard working thing, and I think that’s really helped propel us to even higher levels than we have,” Prince said.
The Hawks did not let a new roster this season get in the way of achieving the second-longest streak in A-10 history. After a season of training and spending time outside of practice to really get to know one another, Kluyt said the connection on the team is only “getting stronger.”
“We bonded so well, and it finally shows on the field now,” Kluyt said.
After five years of winning the A-10 Championship, there is still a difference this year, Prince said.
“They really instilled the mindset and the belief that you can win in any single moment in any single game,” Prince said. “That has been the biggest difference maker from my first year back in [2022] until now.”
Prince credits the newcomers for adapting and loving to “buy in” to the Hawk family culture. The veteran players who experienced the 2024 national championship run contributed to the winning culture of the team.
“They have a quiet confidence,” Prince said. “They always respect every opponent and always take every game and every practice seriously. It gives the rest of the group a lot of fuel and focus as we go forward.”
With 63 seconds left in the championship game, fifth-year forward/middle Ava Smith scored a goal to put the exclamation point on the Hawks win, which secured them an automatic bid to send St. Joe’s back to the NCAA Tournament.
With their NCAA tournament bid, the Hawks will be facing Drexel in the opening round, in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, Nov. 12. This marks a rematch for the team after falling to Drexel 3-2 in a shootout during the regular season.The winner will face the top-seeded North Carolina Nov. 14.
“I am super confident in our group that we can make some adjustments from the first time we played them to be able to propel us into that Sweet 16 round,” Prince said.
Kluyt said the Hawks are focused on going into the first round of the NCAA tournament with a “revenge attitude.”
“We know we’re able to beat them if we play like a team and if we just stay together,” Kluyt said.
