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Senior Zoe Feingold, gets back into fall form during the first week of practice for the field hockey team at Germantown Friends.

The Germantown Friends School Tigers sank their fangs into a new field hockey season last week, launching into their practice schedule on Monday and then seeing their first extramural competition during a trip to the Main Line for a Friday morning scrimmage at Agnes Irwin.

Last fall, the Tigers finished up just one win away from securing a berth in the Friends Schools League tournament. With defender Sarah Horowitz the lone graduation loss from the 2009 squad, GFS returns almost its entire team to make a run at the league’s final four in 2010. Back with the crew is second-year head coach Maribeth Wicoff.

The tri-captains this season are forwards Sierra Carter-Gordon and Caroline Cilio and midfielder Zoe Feingold. The other two seniors on the roster are forward Katie Garfinkel and veteran goaltender Alex Gilliam. Both Cilio and Gilliam are products of the strong grade-school program at Chestnut Hill’s Norwood-Fontbonne Academy.

The junior class gives the Tigers strength up and down the field. Allison David is a pure forward, and Coach Wicoff says she can deploy Hannah Drake and Courtney Wilson either on the front line or in the midfield. Isabella Didio and Annie Morrissey are experienced midfielders (DiDio was a first team all-league pick last fall), and Melanie Mason and Morgan Ramsey will be playing at back.

New Mount St. Joseph Academy golf coach Andrew Marr poses with his four seniors (left to right) Alise McNutt, Jenny Jenkins, Samm Arena, and team captain Mary Elizabeth Entwisle.

With the Pennslyvania Interscholastic Athletic Association state championships usually scheduled early in the fourth week of October, the girls golf season must get underway well before Labor Day, and last Wednesday afternoon found the Mount St. Joseph Academy Magic already playing in their 2010 league opener.

With the top five scores among each team’s eight designated players counting towards the team total, the Mount posted a 239-271 victory over visiting Merion Mercy Academy. The Magic hosted the session at par-36 Whitemarsh Valley Country Club.

In 2009 the Magic were the undefeated champions in the Athletic Association of Catholic Academies for the seventh year in a row. They went on to win the PIAA District 1 tournament and the Eastern Regional Championships before finishing as runner-up in the state tourney to Pittsburgh’s Shady Side Academy.

Having graduated seven players from last year’s roster, including primary scoring threat Peter Adubato (a Lafayette College recruit), Chestnut Hill Academy will be fielding a young varsity soccer squad this fall. That’s probably a good thing, since the Blue Devils would much rather look forward than dwell on a disappointing 2009 season.

Just past the midway point in the Inter-Ac campaign, the Blue Devils were 2-4 and still had a chance to post a winning record in the league. Instead, the season ended in forgettable fashion, with four straight setbacks giving the local booters a final record of 2-8 in the Inter-Ac and 5-14-1 overall.