Hood College fall sports wrap up

By Chris Nalley and Jacob Saylor

Hood College fall sports teams are wrapping up after a disappointing season where all the teams but one finished with a losing record.

Field hockey, men’s and women’s soccer, tennis and volleyball combined for 59 losses among the six teams. Additionally, they only had three wins within MAC conference play.

Of the six teams, field hockey had the most successful year finishing with a record of 9-9. This is the largest number of wins since 1999 when the team won 10 games and finished 10-7. Their nine-game winning streak slotted in at the second longest for team winning streaks in Hood College history and put them at 9-2 before conference play began.

However, the second half of their year was rather disappointing. Field hockey did not win a game in conference, going 0-7 and ending their year on a seven-game losing streak and only scoring two goals during conference play. “We are now starting our preparation for our 2024 season so that we can break more records, break more droughts and win multiple conference games,” head coach Carley Shannon said.

Women’s volleyball finished the year at 9-18 overall and went 1-5 in the MAC conference. Volleyball had its most successful season since 2018 and finished seventh in the conference only above Albright.

Sophomore outside hitter Ann Ofoegbu was a bright spot, leading the team with 274 kills and 50 aces.

Women’s soccer took a step back this year going 4-10-4 after making the MAC Commonwealth playoffs a year ago. Most of their struggles came during conference play. They posted a record of 1-3-3 in conference play and scored only three goals in these games. Still, there were positive signs head coach Molly Kovarik said. “Of our 18 matches, 14 of them resulted in a 1-goal differential or fewer resulting in a goal-against average of 1.39 this season,” she said. The goals against average was the third best in program history, she said.

Men’s soccer had a very disappointing season overall. Head coach Kyle Bulagarelli was dismissed a week before the season began. Following this, the team had a very lackluster season going 3-15-1 overall. The Blazers did not fare any better in conference play, going 1-5-1 and only scoring three goals.

Men’s and women’s tennis had a underwhelming year as well with the men’s teams going 0-4 in matches and the women’s team going 1-3. The women’s team’s sole win came against McDaniel College where the Blazers won 9-0.