After ending the 2024 field hockey season just over the .500 mark with an overall record of 10-9, Springside Chestnut Hill Academy’s 2025 squad went 4-0 during the first half of September.

The competition got a lot tougher when the Blue Devils took on three strong out-of-state teams at the Max Field Hockey Invitational September 19-21. SCH lost to a pair of New Jersey rivals, then forged a 2-2 tie with Connecticut’s Sacred Heart Greenwich.

The Devils came back to defeat Penn Charter 7-0, last Tuesday, reaching a record of 5-2-1 overall and 3-0 within the Inter-Ac League.

The local stickwomen ran into a buzz saw on Friday, when they hosted the league’s other undefeated team, the Academy of Notre Dame. Rolling to the 2024 Inter-Ac championship with a 10-0 mark, the Irish dominated their early opponents this fall. They arrived at Springside with a record of 10-0 overall and 2-0 in league play, earning them the number one spot in national polls.

Notre Dame scored twice in each of the first two quarters, then added six goals in the third period for a 10-0 victory.

In 2024 SCH finished in the middle of the Inter-Ac pack, coming in fourth with a record of 5-5. The Blue Devils split their two league matches against third-place Agnes Irwin (5-4-1), then lost to the Owls in the Pennsylvania Independent Schools Athletic Association tournament. The overall SCH program has shown steady improvement since Emilee Ehret Mahon became head coach in 2019.

In one of their early Inter-Ac outings this season, the Devils defeated Irwin, 3-2, with junior Sydney Jacoby scoring twice and sophomore Grace Konow furnishing the other goal. SCH prevailed against Germantown Academy by the same score, powered by goals from Jacoby and seniors Neeve Doherty and Nadia Gross.

Jacoby transferred into SCH from Shipley School, and another new junior, Reese Westerman, previously attended Gwynedd Mercy Academy.

Gross will go on to play for Columbia University, and two juniors have made verbal college commitments: Amelia Clements to Drexel and Molly McGinn to Old Dominion.

Grace Konow and her twin sister Sarah both started for Springside Chestnut Hill as freshmen last fall, but at the end of the season Sarah suffered an ACL injury in the PAIS tournament game against Agnes Irwin.

She is expected to return during the current season.

For last Friday’s Notre Dame game, Doherty was also out of action with a less severe injury.

SCH graduated a set of twins from the 2024 team who have gone on to the University of Massachusetts: Colleen and Devyn Conlan. Devyn plays forward and Colleen is a goalie who was named the Inter-Ac League MVP last season.

Freshman Maya Taglieber, from Colonial Middle School, is the new starting goalie for the Blue Devils, and junior Cece Pressman is also a goalkeeper.

In last Friday’s match against Notre Dame, Springside Chestnut Hill attacked up the field at the outset, but the Irish soon reversed the flow and applied steady pressure on the SCH defense. Taglieber made several saves before Notre Dame got on the scoreboard a little over four minutes into the contest. Junior Carina Demchyk, verbally committed to Michigan State, netted what proved to be the game-winning goal.

A marker by senior Sienna Lavelle made it 2-0, and in the second period senior Maeve McGinley, who will play for the University of North Carolina, scored twice to hit 4-0 at the half.

A senior headed for Princeton, Reese Milone, rang up Notre Dame’s first goal of the second half, and five more would follow before the end of the third quarter. In the middle of the period, SCH goalie Taglieber left the field with 12 saves, and Pressman finished out the game.

More reserve players for the Irish began to filter onto the field in the fourth quarter, and the Blue Devils generated some action on offense. Freshman Kelsey Thomas hit a nice cross from the right endline, but the Devils weren’t able to get a touch on the ball in front of the goal. On an SCH corner a little later, Gross got off a reverse-stick shot that went over the cage.

After that, McGinn drove the ball hard from the top of the circle, but senior Notre Dame goalie Avery Ruggiero ( Lafayette College) stopped it with a leg pad. On a late SCH corner, a drive down toward the left post was deflected away from the cage.

After the game, the Irish celebrated the 50th career victory for Brandi Ritz, who is in her third season as Notre Dame head coach.