Davidson field hockey are in third place in A-10 conference standings. Photo courtesy of @dcfh_wildcats on Instagram.
Davidson field hockey holds a strong position with four games left in regular season play. On Oct. 17, the ‘Cats (8-6) bested The University of California, Davis 1-0 to meet the eight win mark for the first time since 2015.
Sib Naaktgeboren ’26, from Zwijndrecht, Netherlands, leads the team in scoring but credits overall success to team culture. “We really are a bunch of best friends just playing field hockey together,” Naaktgeboren said. “From the goalie to the frontline, we are playing like a connected unit and working for each other.”
Naaktgeboren now tops the Atlantic 10 (A-10) in goals on the season and is tied for fourth in Division I field hockey in points per game with her 15th goal on the season off a penalty corner against UC Davis.
As a whole, Davidson has scored 39 goals in 14 games, placing the team at the top of the A-10 and 14th in the nation for goals-per-game. Naaktgeboren attributes their offensive firepower to a great team bond. “Because of our connection, we have been able to play more offensively […] These goals are the result of good defensive efforts and being able to work the ball up the field, where the team is setting me up to score some goals as well,” Naaktgeboren said.
Head Coach Zoe Almquist said this season has been the program’s most successful since she joined in 2019. “I’ve been saying this for a few years, ‘we’re getting better, we’re getting better. We might not see it in the results, but I promise we are getting there,’” Almquist said.
“As a coach, it feels like steps, but in terms of specific results, all of a sudden, you start to see results and for a person on the outside looking in, results may appear quickly, but it’s a product of the work that we’ve been putting in over many years.”
The team’s successes extend past their wins, putting up strong performances against top-ranked teams. Davidson played Wake Forest on Sept. 5 into double overtime, losing 2-1 to a team that is now ranked 7th in the nation. Lourdes Wolf ’29 started in the game against Wake Forest. Wolf is a first-year forward from Hamburg, Germany who has had a great impact on the program thus far with 10 points in her first season. She commented on the double overtime loss to Wake. “Getting into double overtime with one of the best teams in the country is good, and it’s something that we should be proud of, but also we also need to work on execution,”
Almquist identified penalty corner execution percentage as an area for improvement. “[Corners are] about the details, getting the rhythm right and getting the reps in. We are continuing to work on trying to get enough reps in practice, enough consistency in practice, in terms of execution,” Almquist said. “Anything that goes wrong disrupts that rhythm and gives us a lower chance of execution. And so it’s definitely an area where I want to be better.”
Davidson’s corner execution percentage consistently remains around 10%. “Top teams in the country and internationally are striving for a 25% corner scoring percentage. That’s a marker that we’re looking to achieve,” Almquist said.
Almquist believes in the team’s ability to execute through the remainder of the regular season. “I said to the team ‘this is a championship caliber team’ in the winter, and they looked at me like I was crazy, but then you say it enough and they start to believe it, and I’ve believed it the whole way. I think the Wake Forest game was heartbreaking, but it also caused us to think, ‘if we can do that, we can do it against anybody.’“
Davidson travels to Philadelphia this weekend where they face St Joseph’s University on Oct. 24 looking to bounce back after a home loss to Stanford University on Oct. 19. They are tied with St. Joe’s for third place in the A-10, both with a 50% win percentage. A win on Friday would put the team at nine overall wins for the first time since 2012. Davidson hopes to continue their success heading into the A-10 Conference tournament at the University of Richmond on Nov. 6-8. The top four teams have the opportunity to win the conference championship which would be a first in Davidson program history.