Watching the events on the first practice of the 2021 season unfold before her eyes, Kelsi Lykens turned to Cody Hunsicker, her trusted assistant coach, and delivered a nod of approval.
Lykens won two national titles during her remarkable collegiate career at West Chester and knowing what winning field hockey looks like when she sees it, the only head coach in University of New Haven field hockey history knew better days were ahead for the program she has built from scratch.
"That first practice, I turned to my assistant coach because we scrimmaged that night and said we had something special this year," Lykens said. "We've been saying, 'trust the magic, let's bring magic' so I can see it."
She is not alone.
The Chargers not only went 0-13 in their inaugural 2017 season, but they never held a lead in that debut season.
Connecticut native Taylor Geaglone (Enfield, Conn./Enfield), who led Enfield to an undefeated regular season in 2017, was joined by New Jersey natives Julia Battino (Haddonfield, N.J./Haddonfield Memorial) and Alexis Rider (Delran, N.J./Delran) to headline the 2018 recruiting class. The trio combined to lead their high school teams to a 55-10 record during the 2017 campaign. They headed to New Haven knowing that wins might be harder to come by but the chance to help build a program as well as playing immediately led them to take a path with a rather high degree of difficulty.
Geaglone and Battino combined on the first goal of the 2018 season. Rider gave UNH its first lead in program history when she scored in the third minute against Molloy. Geaglone scored the winning goal in the Chargers' first program win against Mercy. The following season, New Haven was in contention for a Northeast-10 tournament berth. After being limited to practicing in groups of 10 with no games to prepare for in 2020 due to COVID-19, they are back for their final season together and they intend to save their best for last.
"Going into 2019, we started to develop a culture and [showed] what we could be," Battino said. [The] 2020 [season] coming in was a little different because of COVID but we really started to develop a culture and the people who stayed are really what brought this team together. This year we are going to define the culture and define what New Haven field hockey is. We are able to come together and hopefully get into the NE10 playoffs."
Lykens wanted to see just what her 2021 Chargers team was capable of so she loaded up the schedule with three of the first five games against ranked opponents.
That journey started against Adelphi. In three previous meetings between the programs, the Chargers were outscored 19-0. The last time they squared off, Adelphi outshot UNH 33-2. Yet, in the 2021 season opener, the Chargers were carrying the play as New Haven recorded seven of the eight shots in the first period including Rider's game-opening goal. Adelphi would walk off the field with the hard-earned 2-1 victory but it was clear that there would be some magic being performed by the Chargers this season.
"They shut us out every time but coming into this game, we were able to get onto the board which was great because we never scored [against Adelphi] before," Rider said. "It was a huge confidence boost for everyone. The drive and the heart was there the entire game."
Three days later, No. 3 Saint Anselm came to Ralph F. DellaCamera Stadium and didn't go in front to stay until the 37th minute. It was a far cry from the first meeting between the programs in 2017 when Saint Anselm recorded all 58 shots in the game. The memories of Adelphi and Saint Anselm each scoring 10 times in back to back games against the Chargers in 2017 had been replaced by a true sense of optimism and unmistakable confidence as the Chargers followed up that impressive first period against Adelphi with a dominating second period when they outshot Saint Anselm 5-0.
"I think it comes with a huge mental shift, I know that a lot of us came from winning teams in high school so coming to a new program was a real different change for us," Geaglone said. "We had to, I want to say, cope with losing, cope with the different changes that we were thrown at, every type of adversity. As the years went on, we had a lot of structure and it stayed really consistent. With the consistency and the team that we have now, especially with the senior class, we are all bought in and we can all look at each other and say, 'look where we started and look at where we are now.' I think that is what the team motivation is."
The Chargers posted back-to-back NE10 wins over Saint Michael's and Pace and for the first time UNH recorded consecutive shutouts. No. 2 ranked West Chester managed just one goal the next time out as the Chargers continue to show signs that more wins will be coming this season.
Lykens fought back tears when she spoke about the senior class. She sold them on the dream of building something special. Those who stuck around and helped UNH go from winning two games in 2018 to five in 2019 and now looking to top that total in 2021.
"It gets me really emotional when I think of this senior class because when we were a program in 2017, it was me grabbing any kid that I could and then the 2018 class had to believe in something that was not yet established," Lykens said. "Selling that in the recruiting process was challenging because I am asking them to take a leap of faith. With the 2018 class, it started at 17, now we are at 8, it takes a special type of person and those kids have been with me since the beginning. I know that when they leave, it was almost like over the course of the four years that they're here, they are now establishing what we were talking about in that recruiting class so for me, it really comes full circle. The fact that they trust me as a head coach to not only stay here but to trust the process and that incremental success over time, I could not thank them enough."
Rider leads the 2-3 Chargers with three goals, fellow Class of 2018 recruit Reilly Bialko (Shickshinny, Pa./Northwest Area) has scored twice while Geaglone has a team-high two assists. Senior Keira Integlia (Branford, Conn./Branford), who started 33 games at Eastern Connecticut State before transferring to New Haven, has anchored the defense with 24 saves and a pair uyof shutouts.
"Coming in freshman year, our class was part of history," Rider said. "Coach obviously set the program up and took it in a direction but we came in and we were able to help her take the team still in that direction. We had our first win our freshman year against Mercy so that was the start of everything and the confidence slowly grew, we could see the potential in our class, after that with every other class coming in, it just grew and grew."
The starting lineup also includes players from all four classes. Seeing the progress of the younger players has given the veteran New Haven players the belief that the Chargers are building something special.
"I really want to help coach the younger people and make sure they are able to take over these spots on the team," Battino said.
"In a few years from now, we will be looking back, see how they are doing, hoping that they are nationally ranked. I am excited to be able to look back and know I was a part of that, it is a great feeling to have."
However, there is still plenty of field hockey left to be played before this special senior class can ponder their collective legacy.
"Our team goal is to make NE10 playoffs, that has always been our goal, we were short a game two seasons ago so we know that it is possible and we want to make a run in the NE10 playoffs, just shock the NE10 and shock our community, show them that this is where we are and this is where we belong," Geaglone said. "That has been our goal ever since we were short two years ago and I think that has always been in the back of our heads that we can do this and it is possible."
