For many Northeastern teams, the 2008-09 year was generally one of resurgence and re-establishment.
It is well known the men’s hockey team completed a remarkable three-year turnaround from a three-win season in 2005-06 to winning 25 games this year and making the NCAA tournament for the first time since 1994. Many Husky fans also took pride in the women’s soccer team, which won the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) Championship and went to the second round of the NCAA tournament, and the men’s basketball team, which won a postseason game for the first time since 1984.
There was, however, one team still trying to find its identity.
The field hockey team has a rich and storied history at NU. It’s been to the NCAA tournament 14 times, more than any other Husky squad. In 1988 it won the national third-place spot. In 1995 and 1996, it advanced to the national semifinals. As recently as 2004, it made the national quarterfinal round, something it has done seven other times. From 2000-04, it compiled a record of 79-22 while playing in the America East, a conference it won 10 times between 1988 and 2004.
But in 2005, Northeastern joined the CAA, and despite a 16-6 record in its first year in the conference, the Huskies haven’t been able to yet replicate the customary dominance, either in conference or nationally. In the past three seasons, the team has gone 26-37, and last year went 1-7 in the CAA while losing 10 of its final 12 games after a promising 5-2 start.
Though the Huskies have hit a bump in the road, there is reason to hope and believe that in 2009, the field hockey team could have the same kind of resurgent progress that marked the successful seasons of other Northeastern squads last year.
Chief among them is Kaela Barker, a freshman who last year accepted CAA Rookie of the Year honors. She started 19 of 20 games for the Huskies, and brought a consistent presence to the team’s midfield, scoring nine points on three goals and three assists during the season. Carolyn Malloy, a forward, joined Barker on the All-Rookie team after a season in which she played in 19 games and was third on the team in scoring, with 13 points coming from five goals and three assists.
The scoring punch was further boosted by a sophomore who made the All-CAA second team, midfielder Pam Aldridge. Aldridge led the Huskies in scoring with 23 points, thanks to a team-best 10 goals and three assists. She was seventh in the CAA in goals and led NU in shots taken with 68.
The young trio of offensive stalwarts will be looking to reestablish a Northeastern team that loses only three seniors to prominence. Sophomore forward Meg Sweeney will also return after a season in which she started all 20 games and finished fifth on the team in scoring with 10 points on four goals and two assists. Anne-Reike Stuhlmann, a sophomore back who started all 20 games for the Huskies, will anchor the defense on what figures to be a young but talented squad.
For a school like Northeastern, which lacks a consistent history of success in its other sports, it would be nice for the field hockey team to regain its form and figure into the top of the CAA, if not the national picture. The pieces are in place for the team to make great strides, and if Murtagh can bring in another recruiting class like the last one that earned top conference accolades, we could see the field hockey team creating the kind of buzz it has accustomed to making sooner rather than later.
And that’s something every Husky fan should root for.

‘- Jonathan Raymond can be reached at [email protected].