Tales from the turf

EMU’s field hockey coaches, players share stories and successes through the years

When Eastern Mennonite University built a turf field in 1989, it became the first school in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC) to do so. EMU’s field hockey athletes, who began playing on the field that fall, welcomed the switch from grass to artificial turf. The new surface complemented the speedy and skilled set of players; they could move the ball up the pitch faster and with more control and pass and shoot with more accuracy and power. The other schools in the ODAC were less than thrilled with the change, recounts Sandy Brownscombe, coach of the EMU team from 1978-93.

“Everybody was upset,” she said. “They thought we had an unfair advantage. There was even discussion that we shouldn’t be allowed to host the conference tournament if we were the No. 1 seed.”

Fortunately, for EMU and for the future of field hockey, those discussions soon ground to a halt. Eventually, the other ODAC schools, as well as countless high schools and colleges across the country, installed turf fields for their own field hockey programs.

“It’s the way the game was meant to be played,” Brownscombe said.

A sport with success

EMU’s turf field, along Park Road north of Suter Science Center, has witnessed the school’s leading scorers and legendary goalkeepers play on its pitch. Field hockey has more athletes inducted in EMU’s Hall of Honor (18 players) and more teams in the hall (two: the 1980 and 1995 squads) than any other sport at the school. By comparison, men’s soccer, which has the second-most inductees, has 12 players and one team in the hall. Two coaches who led the field hockey program, Brownscombe and Miriam “Mim” Mumaw ‘61, are also in the hall.

EMU field hockey teams have won 11 ODAC titles and appeared at 11 national tournaments (two Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women [AIAW] and nine National Collegiate Athletic Association [NCAA] tournaments). The 1995 team, which advanced further than any other in school history, competed in the final four of the NCAA Division III field hockey tournament and placed third in the country.

From 1979 to 2003, Royals field hockey celebrated an unparalleled streak of success with teams advancing every year during those 25-seasons to the final four of their conference—the Virginia Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (VAIAW) from 1979-81 and the ODAC from 1982-2003. For six straight seasons, from 1995 to 2000, EMU field hockey went undefeated in ODAC play. (The 1987 and 2007 teams were also undefeated in the ODAC.)

EMU Athletics Hall of Honor  Field Hockey Players (year graduated) Melanie Gehret Baker  (1983) Cheryl Bergey Derstine  (1985) Linda Burkhart Myers  (1986) Ann Wenger Whipple  (1988) Tina Book  (1991) Radella Todd Vrolijk  (1992) Jeané Horning Hershey  (1994) Jen Kooker Peifer  (1996) Candance Sauder King  (1996) Krista Ebersole Sensenig  (1997) Kirsten (Brubaker) Fuhr  (1998) Sherri Allebach Vass  (1999) Laura Hess  (2000) Sara Nissley  (2000) Kristin Moyer Vasey  (2003) Jonalyn Denlinger  (2005) Kristina Landis Yoder  (2008) Alyssa Derstine Landis  (2010) Coaches (years inducted) Miriam Mumaw (2002) Sandra Brownscombe (2004) Teams (years inducted) 1980 Field Hockey Team (2012) 1995 Field Hockey Team (2008)

An era begins

Field hockey’s start in America is credited to Constance Applebee who played the sport in England and introduced it while on a tour of northeastern U.S. women’s colleges in 1901. She served as athletic director of Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania from 1904-28 and co-founded the American Field Hockey Association.

It began as a club sport at EMU in 1970 under Mumaw, a trailblazing athletic director who coached the women’s basketball (1966-75) and women’s volleyball (1968-79) teams.

Before that, students interested in field hockey like Fannie Bomberger Miller ‘71 played on area club teams composed of coaches from nearby schools and colleges.

“When I would tell kids from Virginia that I played hockey, they were like, ‘What’s that?’” said Miller, who came to EMU from Manheim, Pennsylvania.

She played on the Shenandoah Valley club team from 1967-68. By the time EMU fielded its own team, Miller said, she was too busy with her nursing coursework to join.

A group of students from the Lancaster, Pennsylvania, area had played field hockey in high school and wanted to start a team at EMU, Mumaw said. So, she volunteered to get them started, serving as inaugural coach for that first season. Field hockey became a varsity sport at EMU in 1971, with coach Dianne Gates taking the helm for four years.

“I was more of a faculty adviser than a coach,” Mumaw said. “Dianne’s the one who developed the program.”

The Title IX Act of 1972 mandated equal funding for women’s sports. “A lot of the expansion in women’s athletics came from that,” Mumaw said. “We were fortunate to have Madison College (now JMU) and Bridgewater College close by because we could play them in almost any sport.”

In those days, EMU’s women athletes competed in the AIAW. EMU became one of the founding members of the ODAC in 1976, beginning with men’s sports. ODAC added women’s sports in 1982.

When Mumaw left EMU in 1979 for a sabbatical-turned-permanent residency in Washington, D.C, she rented out her basement to Brownscombe for a year. Brownscombe, who also coached the women’s basketball (1978-89) and men’s volleyball (1991-98) teams, led the field hockey program for 16 seasons.

The 1980 team

For as long as EMU has fielded a team—and even longer, Pennsylvania and the Lancaster region has been a hotbed of field hockey talent. As a coach, Brownscombe ran a field hockey camp at Camp Hebron (Pennsylvania) during the summers that helped to recruit players to EMU. In fact, a majority of the players throughout EMU’s history began playing the sport in high schools around Pennsylvania.

“The rest of the hockey world had not figured out, until we started getting really good, how great these Lancaster County girls were,” Brownscombe said. “Then they began to realize, ‘Oh, these kids are great players, they’re great people, and they’re great students.’”

For an example of their integrity, look no further than the 1980 AIAW regional tournament match between EMU and Mary Washington. That game ended in a 0-0 tie, and both teams headed to a separate practice field for penalty strokes. When a Mary Washington player took her first penalty stroke, the ball slipped past EMU goalkeeper Shirley Yoder Faust and through a hole in the net. The umpire, unaware of the hole, signaled a missed shot. It was then, Brownscombe said, that Faust approached the umpire and pointed out the hole.

“They came up to me, and the umpire asked, ‘Why would your goalie tell me it was a goal when I said it wasn’t?’” Brownscombe said. “Shirley looked at me and said, ‘Because it’s the truth,’ and the official just shook her head.”

That 1980 team, which went on to win those penalty strokes, finished third at the state tournament and second at the regional tournament. That year marked the first time Royals field hockey, or any sports team at the school, would qualify for a national tournament. It finished 13th and was inducted in the Hall of Honor in 2012.

“The players on that team saw the transition of field hockey at EMU from just another team to one that had to be reckoned with,” Brownscombe said.

Many of EMU’s field hockey athletes through the years have continued serving the school long after they graduated and played their final games. Former players like Anne Kaufman Weaver ‘88 and Evon Bergey ‘79 served as members of the EMU Board of Trustees. Bergey, mother of Music Professor Benjamin Bergey and chair of the EMU Presidential Search Committee in 2016, only played field hockey for one season in 1978, but plays a role in one of coach Sandy Brownscombe’s cherished memories. As the team geared up for a game during the season, Brownscombe said, Bergey approached her and told her she was going to a wedding on Saturday. “I asked her, ‘Who’s going to score? We need you. You’re our offense,” said the coach. The game was early Saturday morning and the wedding was that night in Souderton, Pennsylvania. Bergey was in the wedding party and was expected to be there on Friday night. She flew in for the game on Saturday and then flew right back to Pennsylvania after it ended. “She scored the only goal that game,” Brownscombe said. “We won 1-0.”

The ‘hay’ days of hockey

Before the turf field arrived on campus, the field hockey players practiced and played on a grass field that ran from the top of the tennis courts to the physical plant, through what is now the softball field.

Brownscombe recalled regularly painting lines on the field with the soccer coach, whose field was next to them, where the new track complex is. One year, she said, her players arrived at the field and found the grass so long it looked like hay.

“Fortunately, one of the captains had worked at the physical plant all summer and was allowed to drive a truck, so the other players could throw the grass in it,” she said. “Sure, it was frustrating, but that’s what we did.”

Field hockey and soccer players often had to stop practices for cross-country meets, which ran right across the 50-yard line of our grass fields. When they did get to play, it was in front of a passionate group of fans: the boys in the three-story Oakwood dormitory.

“They were rowdy,” Brownscombe said. “They would be watching out their windows and be shouting at the players.”

Linda Burkhart Myers ‘86, the 1985 ODAC Player of the Year and a member of the 1985 team that won the conference, played for the Royals after transferring from Goshen College in 1983.  “Hockey was my first love, and the team was like a second family,” she said. “The other players were fun to goof around with but also were serious about working hard to play better hockey.”

The ’90s teams

Tina Book ‘91 played on the field hockey team for four seasons in the late 1980s and returned to coach the team in 1994 after Brownscombe left. She remembered playing on the turf field the first year it was installed.

“It made the game faster, and it also allowed us to score more,” the 1989 ODAC Player of the Year said. “I feel like we were so adaptive to the turf.”

Indeed, all of the top scorers in the EMU record books—players like Jeané Horning Hershey ‘94—made their mark on the turf. Hershey, once the career record leader in goals and points scored, now ranks sixth in career goals and eighth in career points at EMU.

In 1992 and 1993, the Royals defeated rival and perennial ODAC powerhouse Lynchburg College in back-to-back conference finals matches to advance to the first round of the national tournament. It was the start of seven national tournament appearances that decade. (The Royals returned to the national tournament in 2000 and 2003.)

“We had a good camaraderie, and I don’t remember any drama,” Hershey said. “I just remember working hard and doing the best we could.”

Former goalkeeper Jen Kooker Peifer ’96, who played on the team from 1992-95, held the career saves record for 23 years before it was broken in 2018 by Kelsey Troyer. Peifer’s career save percentage record (89.8 percent) remains intact. She was inducted in the Hall of Honor as an athlete and as a member of the 1995 team.

That ‘95 squad posted a remarkable 21-2 overall record, an 8-0 conference record and a historic run to the final four at nationals. “I think that’s one of the best teams that EMU has ever had in any sport,” Peifer said.

‘Small but mighty’

When Kristina Landis Yoder ’09 joined the field hockey team in 2006, she had heard all about its history of success.

“There was definitely a sense of honor in carrying on those traditions,” she said. “We always had pride in being a small but mighty team.”

Yoder recounted starting each morning of preseason practice with a three-mile run, followed by three practices held throughout the day. During her playing career, from 2006-08, the team led by coach Brenda Bechler made it to the ODAC finals every year only to be defeated by Lynchburg each time. Their first meeting, in 2006, ended in a tie and went into a second overtime before Lynchburg prevailed in penalty strokes.

“I don’t think there was any other game in my career that all of us played so hard and ran so hard,” she said. “That year, they didn’t expect us to make it that far, and we did. It was exhilarating and fun and by far the most memorable game I’ve ever played.”

A bright future

In February 2024, Chardonnay “Char” Hope took the reins as the new field hockey coach. She succeeds Ashley “Stick” Kishorn, who had coached the team since 2017.

Prior to coming to EMU, Hope was the head field hockey coach at ODAC school Ferrum College. She said she had researched the Royals’ success, and it was what drew her to taking the job.

“A championship history and a winning mindset is embedded in the roots of this program,” Hope said. “There are many athletes and coaches who have paved the way for our current team and me.”

Turf as old as time

The EMU turf field has a rich history. Its playing surface, which was last replaced in 2006, is now used by the men’s and women’s soccer teams and women’s lacrosse team, in addition to the field hockey team. But, after 18 years of dutiful service, it’s showing its age. The turf no longer has the same bounce or cushion it once had. Sections of the surface are peeling away, presenting a safety hazard to the athletes who use it.

“Replacing the turf field is absolutely necessary to avoid injuries and attract the level of players that will build a winning team,” Hershey said.

Peifer agreed with her former teammate: “If you want athletes to come to EMU, having top-tier athletic facilities is paramount. When they’re touring schools, the facilities that impress them play a big part in where they want to go.”

The turf field, one of the oldest in the ODAC, has lived nearly two industry-standard lives. The school is set to install new carpet and a top-of-the-line pad this summer. EMU Athletics Director Carrie Bert said the new and improved field will be “visually appealing and, more importantly, provide more consistent ball play and a significantly safer experience for athletes and officials.”

Support our student-athletes and a new turf field through an immediate gift or multi-year commitment. Give today at emu.edu/turf-field, or contact kirk.shisler@emu.edu for more details.

EMU Field Hockey All-time record 513-376-19 All-time ODAC record 269-117-4 ODAC Tournament record 54-20 (.730) NCAA Division III bids 9 (1992-93-95-96-97-98-99-2000-03) NCAA Tournament record 4-8 (.333) ODAC Championships 11 (1985-87-92-93-95-96-97-98-99-2000-03)