Consistency has been the hallmark of the VTSU Castleton Spartans field hockey team this season.

The Spartans are clicking on all cylinders riding a nine-game winning-streak. The team has gone undefeated in conference play, claiming the regular season LEC title after a win against Plymouth State and securing the 1-seed in the LEC tournament.

Head coach Emily Douglas and graduate assistant Alexis Ruiz were thrilled after their victory against Plymouth State.

“I was really happy after the win against Plymouth, but I felt there was potential of us being regular season champs after beating Keene,” Douglas said.

“I was really excited and honestly I felt pretty confident after the win,” Ruiz said. “The team has established a winning mindset, so their energy is always there. And they deserved it because of all the work we’ve put in which has given us home field advantage in the playoffs which is huge.”

Notching 15 wins this season marks the highest regular season win total Douglas has had in her tenure with the Spartans. She believes the key this season has been finding the positives when things aren’t going in their favor.

“We’ve had some rough games here and there, but overall, we’ve utilized those as learning opportunities rather than being miserable. We acknowledged we had a loss, but we learned our strengths and weaknesses,” Douglas said. “That really helped because now we’ve recognized where people look good and how well they can play off of each other.”

Ruiz, a first year graduate assistant, believes this program has the core values of a winner’s mentality, cohesiveness, and the ability to be resilient and bounce back from any obstacle. Although she is new to the program, she’s established a rapport with each of the girls on the team.

“I would say all of the girls trust me and I like that because I thought that would have been hard to develop, especially with a collegiate team, just because when you’re new you never know what you’re stepping into,” Ruiz said. “But I like how some of us are close in age and we’re able to talk about on- and off-the-field moments that we can relate to so I feel like the girls trust me.”

Though last year’s team was littered with experienced players, Ruiz had a sense that this team was going to be special.

“I knew we had a chance of being a good team because during preseason when I realized we had a big freshman class, with that newness on the team, it was nice to see the development and growth so quickly,” Ruiz said. “Seeing that working really well from the start of preseason helped them come together to have this outcome.”

Douglas said she had the same feeling in preseason.

“I remember our first practice, we walked away and I was like, ohh, we’re gonna be good! Just the intensity and speed, like everything about it looked awesome,” Douglas said. “Sometimes you just kind of have that feeling and I said that at Union during our first game this is one of the most talented overall teams that I’ve coached. I’ve had talented teams, obviously the team that won the championship, but as a cohesive unit, it’s been pretty awesome to see the way this team complements each other.”

With the Spartans locking down the #1 seed, they know they’re going to get everyone’s best shot in the tournament. Douglas looks back to the gritty win they had against Southern Maine.

“That game they played up to us 100%. We watched a lot of their film and we saw a different team, like more competitive, more speed so we’ve kind of been aware of that since beating Keene, but we take it as an honor because you still got to get the work done,” Douglas said. “I think the biggest thing that we have to focus on is just playing our game and not focusing on theirs at all, not dropping to any level, not becoming frustrated, and keeping ourselves together as a cohesive unit.”

Although the Spartans are hot and have beaten every conference opponent, Douglas still believes any team they play in the tournament can win.

“Literally anyone that’s making the playoffs is a threat because things can change so much, like Keene was in overtime with one of the teams that’s lower in the seedings so it’s unpredictable,” Douglas said. “I think everyone has a preference of who they want to see again because of matchups but I’d love to see Keene in the championship with us and see either West Conn or East Con again in the semifinals.”

One of the most overlooked parts of the season is that every single game the Spartans have had different goal scorers. The highest number of goals scored by a single player in a game has been two goals. This shows that they’re maybe not getting a lot of individual accolades, but they’re tough to defend because everyone is a threat to score.