SCH junior Mackenzie Ramsey (center) tries to keep the ball away from Penn Charter freshman Avery Myers (left) and Quakers sophomore Alexa Lenfest (right). (Photo by Tom Utescher)

by Tom Utescher

On Monday and Tuesday of last week Springside Chestnut Hill Academy earned a split its final two field hockey games of the season. A goal near the end of the first half by junior Grace Yang held up for a 1-0 victory over Inter-Ac League and Northwest Philly rival Penn Charter at the start of the week.

On Tuesday the Blue Devils travelled to the Hill School for a first-round game in the eight-team Pennsylvania Independent Schools tournament, in which the host team, seeded third, overcame number six SCH, 2-0. Even in that defeat the local stickwomen showed considerable improvement, since they had succumbed to Hill by a 6-0 score in a regular-season non-league match at the beginning of October.

Penn Charter would end its season on Saturday during the traditional day of athletic competition with Germantown Academy that comes at the end of each fall sports season. The Patriots completed a series sweep of the Quakers with an 8-0 victory, starting with markers by seniors Isabelle Jacobs and Natalie Kim and then receiving six straight strikes by sophomore sensation Sammy Popper, who reached the 100-goal milestone in just her second varsity season.

GA placed third in the Inter-Ac behind undefeated champion Notre Dame and 2015 champ Episcopal, with a mark of 6-4. There were only 10 league games on the Pats' league ledger since they acceded to the wishes of Baldwin School and played their junior varsity against the Bears' top team.

Germantown won both of its official Inter-Ac games against Agnes Irwin, but was overcome by the Owls, 4-3, in the first round of the PAIS tourney. The off-field highlight of the Patriots' season came on October 31, when second-year head coach Jackie Connard, a GA alum, gave birth to a son, Douglas Milne.

Early in the 2016 hockey season, Springside Chestnut Hill got off to a 5-0 start in non-league matches, while Penn Charter began by beating Archbishop Ryan and later knocked off Philadelphia Public League power Central High School. Both teams would find tougher going within the Inter-Ac, especially against teams like Notre Dame, which has more than half-a-dozen seniors and juniors who have been recruited to play field hockey in college.

A number of the top athletes on the PC and SCH squads are primarily focused on other sports. Players like Blue Devils senior Maggie King, who has been involved in club field hockey for many years and plans to play the sport at Wellesley College, are thin on the ground for both the Devils and the Quakers. This puts both schools at a bit of a disadvantage in a sport that is as skills-specific as hockey.

The two teams consigned Baldwin School to the league basement as they each beat the Bears twice. In the Inter-Ac, SCH (4-8) finished one spot ahead of the Quakers (2-10) with a pair of one-goal wins over Charter. A 3-2 victory at PC in mid-October preceded last week's 1-0 verdict.

The lone goal in the rematch between the teams came with 55 seconds remaining in the first half. King sent the ball into the circle, then Savannah Sweitzer earned an assist on the marker by fellow junior Grace Yang.

The host Blue Devils had the better of the play throughout the contest, and Penn Charter goalie Janelle Sullivan was called upon to make a full dozen saves over the course of the afternoon. Another senior, SCH's Audrey Hinchey, needed to make just two stops to get her shutout.