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By STEVE SEMBRAT
Friday, November 03, 1995     Page:

Times Leader Assistant Sports Editor
   
Wilkes University figures to be extremely vulnerable for 35 minutes in its
first-ever NCAA Division III field hockey playoff game.
    The Colonels (13-4) make their first tournament appearance at 1:30 p.m.
today when they take on Cortland State (14-5-2) at Messiah College in
Grantham. The Red Dragons have won the championship the past two years, and
are looking to become the first team to ever win three straight national
titles on the Division III level.
   
Today’s winner advances to Saturday’s quarterfinals against the
Messiah-Mary Washington winner on the Messiah campus. The loser is eliminated.
   
In the four games Wilkes has lost this year, it has allowed seven goals.
Six of those have come in the first half, which is one reason why the first 35
minutes figure to be crucial.
   
“If we can get past the nerves, if we can settle in without allowing a
goal, we’re going to give them all they can handle,” Wilkes coach Addy
Malatesta said. “That’s what we want to do. We want to leave our mark.”
   
The Colonels have been a second-half team all season. Wilkes has outscored
opponents 16-10 in the first half, and 25-4 in the second. Those first-half
proportions probably have to change if the Colonels are to advance.
   
“You can’t sit back,” Wilkes senior forward Sue Richardson said. “You have
to come out of the gate full force.”
   
Statistics show it is extremely difficult to engineer a come-from-behind
win against Cortland State, which has outscored opponents 55-13 this season.
The Red Dragons haven’t allowed three goals in a game this season, and have
allowed two goals on three occasions: William Smith, another NCAA tournament
team, did it twice; the other team to do it was Lock Haven, the No. 1 team in
Division II.
   
“We can expect a Bloomsburg style of play, in that there is a physicalness
about them, but it’s a stick-to-stick connection at high speed,” Malatesta
said. “We’re going to have to deal with the speed. Defensively, we’re going to
have to hold tight to our marks.”
   
Cortland’s leading scorer is Dani Innerst. The senior forward from
Woolgoolga, New South Wales, Australia, has 14 goals and six assists this
season. She missed the past eight games with a broken clavicle, and the Red
Dragons suffered all five of their losses during that stretch. Innerst,
however, has been cleared to play in today’s game.
   
She is followed by Jonna Macri, a junior forward from Little Falls, N.Y.,
who has 13 goals and seven assists.
   
“They’re very aggressive around the ball,” Malatesta said. “Their forwards
are extremely aggressive around the goal mouth.”
   
The Red Dragons defense features seniors Ilena Key (Seaford, N.Y) and
Jackie Mouilesseaux (Spencer, N.Y.) and freshman Uta Feurie (Neuwied,
Germany).
   
“The biggest thing that would be an imbalance is their experience,”
Malatesta said. “We have to just go in and play the game.”
   
Wilkes, which features a strong local contingent on its roster, matches up
well offensively.
   
The Colonels, like the Red Dragons, have two proven scorers.
   
Senior Kim Kaskel, a Crestwood graduate from Mountaintop and the school’s
all-time leading goal-scorer, leads the Colonels with 15 goals and nine
assists this season. Following her is Richardson, a Dallas graduate, with 12
goals and six assists.
   
“At the beginning of the season, we talked about going to the NCAA
playoffs,” Kaskel said. “We said to each other we want to go, we should go
with the people we have.”
   
Senior midfielders Stephanie Hastings from Wilmington, Del., is next in
scoring with six goals and four assists. She is a prime performer in big
games, and turned in an outstanding performance in Wilkes’ 2-1 loss to Lebanon
Valley in the Middle Atlantic Conference semifinals on Wednesday, Oct. 25.
That was the Colonels last contest.
   
“I know we can do it,” Hastings said. “We’re all striving for the same
goal. As long as we all play together, and play the way we can play, we have a
really good chance.”
   
The defense features the Quick sisters, Heather and Alison, both
Tunkhannock graduates from Lake Winola. Heather, a senior, is the starting
center halfback. Alison, a sophomore, starts at sweeper, and when she doesn’t,
junior Lee Meyers, a Crestwood graduate from Mountaintop, does.
   
Two other starters and prime performers are a pair of Lake-Lehman
graduates, junior Noell Brooks and sophomore Heather Evanish.
   
Junior Tracy Engle from Bloomsburg and freshman Pam Truszkowski of
Mountaintop have split goalkeeping duties. Engle, a Central Columbia graduate,
was the No. 1 goalie this year but was sidelined twice with a back injury.
Wilkes didn’t lose much when Truszkowski, a Crestwood graduate, stepped in.
   
Wilkes and Cortland had three common opponents this season. Cortland beat
Marywood College (7-0), tied St. Lawrence University (0-0) and lost twice to
William Smith (2-1 and 2-0). Wilkes beat Marywood (2-1 in overtime), beat St.
Lawrence (3-1) and lost to William Smith (2-1 in overtime).
   
As for the site, Wilkes has played on Messiah’s natural grass field before,
in playoffs, too, but the outcome wasn’t pretty. The Colonels lost 5-0 to
Messiah in last year’s MAC championship game.
   
Cortland is also familiar with Messiah’s field. Messiah hosted the Final
Four last year, and Cortland beat the host team in penalty strokes in the
semifinals, then defeated Trenton State 2-1 to win the national title.
   
“We need to be positive,” Hastings said. “The pressure is on to see how
we’re going to do, but we’ll do fine.”