Carmel Rams Showed Steady Improvement

CARMEL—The record may not be impressive, but the Carmel High field hockey team showed marked improvement from the start of the season to the end, and coach Colette Brenneman is hoping that momentum carries over to next year.

Sarah McCormack The Rams closed out the fall with a record of 4-9-4, and lost a tough opening round matchup against John Jay of East Fishkill, 1-0, in the Class AA tournament.

“I was happy with the girls’ performance,” Brenneman said. “We were very young, with a lot of girls playing in new positions. At the end they really started to play well together, and we started playing closer games. So we definitely made a lot of progress.”

Three Rams took home post-season honors.

Senior team captain and defender Sarah McCormack was named to the All-Elite team. Senior captain and midfielder Lindsay Kirk earned All- Elite Honorable Mention, and both girls were named to the All-League team, along with Christina Caso, a senior midfielder and team captain.

Lindsay Kirk “McCormack played very well in a new position, and she took control of the defense,” Brenneman said. “She stood out in every game, and gave us everything. Kirk really stepped up in a difficult role – center mid – and she took it to another level. She played great and did an excellent job. And you don’t hear much from Caso during the game, but she’s very smooth, poised and consistent. I don’t think she had a bad game all season. She did very well for us this year.”

Brenneman also pointed to strong efforts from Sara Rattigan, Sam Scapoli, Claudia Jarzebiak and Kristen Barrett. “They all gave us good contributions, and all four played hard every game,” Brenneman said. “They played well and always stepped up.”

Christina Caso Carmel loses five seniors starters to graduation, but Brenneman is optimistic about next fall.

“We have some good, hungry players coming up,” the coach said. “And the core we have now is good and strong. They learned a lot of the fundamentals this year. Next year we’ll need to fill in some spots, and we hope to be competitive.”