Johnstone Era Of CMU Field Hockey Begins Friday

Friday, August 26

East Lansing, Mich.

3 p.m.

Central Michigan University

Saint Louis

Lauren Buffington (left) is one of several veteran returnees to the Chippewa field hockey team in 2022. CMU opens the season on Friday.

Photo by: Jack Reeber '23,M'25 - @jackreeber.raw

8/25/2022 3:08:00 PM | Field Hockey

By: Andy Sneddon, CMUChippewas.com

MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. – The Jennifer Johnstone era of Central Michigan field hockey officially gets underway this weekend when the Chippewas open the season with two nonconference neutral-site games.

"I think there's definitely an excitement right now about what we could possibly do this year," said Johnstone, who was named in February to head the program. "As a team I think we're ready to surprise some people."

CMU is scheduled to take on Saint Louis on Friday (3 p.m.) and then American on Sunday (11 a.m.). Both games are scheduled for Michigan State's Ralph Young Field.

CMU entertained the Spartans in a scrimmage last weekend, giving Johnstone a good barometer of where her program stands.

"It's exciting to think about the possibility and after playing Michigan State, I think the student-athletes can feel the difference compared to a year ago when they scrimmaged Michigan State," she said. "I think that alone is giving them more confidence to potentially do things that maybe they haven't done."

Johnstone has a good nucleus to work with as she attempts to put the Chippewas on track to competitiveness in the Mid-American Conference.

Co-captains Alice O'Hagan and Lauren Buffington return along with veteran goalkeeper Katie Maxim. Junior Kate Biglin, who led the Chippewas with four goals and 11 points a year ago, also returns.

O'Hagan and Buffington are two of the six seniors on the roster. BobbiMarie Parker, Rachel Ruttenberg, Meg Stockreef and Emily Maloney are the others.

"We're pushing the pace in training," Johnstone said. "I am of the mindset as a coach that if we're doing the right things in training all week, then on gameday it's their time to show.

"Their goals are the ones that are really going to drive the bus and move us forward this season."

Johnstone said that while she subscribes to the axiom that defense wins championships, offense has been a point of emphasis throughout preseason practices.

"We've been playing around with two systems," she said. "One is more defensive structured where we secure the backfield and the other's a bit more attacking which has a lot of potential based on the athletes that we have in our program.

"I think we have a lot of people who can help us generate offense and I also think we have quite few people – especially with some of our returners – who are very good defenders."