Kiersten Turner ’16

Athlete of the Week: Rachel Kennedy ’16

Field hockey’s Rachel Kennedy ’16 scored both goals in last Saturday’s 2-1 win over Amherst. A three-year starter, Kennedy tied Katie Riley ’14 for the team lead with 21 goals last year, and scored 15 as a first year. Her early three goals this season have further cemented her reputation as a feared scoring threat at the center forward position. Both Head Coach Nicky Pearson and captain Colleen Finnerty ’15 said a second year at the center forward position—where Pearson puts players with a knack for scoring—will benefit Kennedy further. Kennedy played on the wing during her first year on the team.
After several star seniors graduated last spring, Kennedy is the player with the most starts under her belt. Joining her at forward are Kimmy Ganong ’17 and Adrienne O’Donnell ’15, both first-time starters with whom Kennedy said she hopes to build further chemistry. Finnerty said she remembers the rapport between Kennedy and Riley as “instinctive,” noting that the two often assisted each other’s goals last season.
Taking over for last season’s coring threat Olivia King ’14 is Mettler Growney ’17, who will seek to provide some of the consistency of last year’s NCAA tournament MVP.
Of Kennedy’s three goals so far, two have been unassisted, with the Amherst game-winner coming off the stick of O’Donnell before Kennedy drove it home.
“She has the speed and the quickness to beat players, coupled with good ball handling,” said Pearson.
Her first goal against Amherst demonstrated her expert scoring ability. Kennedy beat two defenders and avoided a charging goalie before hitting the bottom-left corner of the net.Kennedy records a number of unassisted goals because of her impressive one-on-one play and athleticism, which she thinks comes from years of ice hockey.
Kennedy believes that she has been able to translate stick control from the ice to the turf.Finnerty, who is also a member of the women’s hockey team, believes there is a “grit” in hockey that translates as well to the field.
“When you see her take a pole right,” Finnerty said, “it’s not the prettiest sight but it gets the job done. Rachel doesn’t have the most finesse out of anyone out there but it’s her hard work that makes it work.”
Both women picked up field hockey sticks for the first time as freshmen in high school, and Finnerty thinks that this commitment to ice hockey caused them to miss out on the experience that comes from playing more consistently on field hockey club teams.
For her part, Kennedy noted that she has been working on taking the pole with more authority; she noted her tendency to go left more often.
Both players laughed about Kennedy’s continued attempt to master the reverse, a more difficult maneuver that a player to subtly break the rule that the ball can only touch one side of the stick and hit a low, fast shot, vaguely resembling a backhand.
Pearson said that the adjustmentsto the lineup have affected chemistry, as the new players attempt to learn Kennedy’s tendencies and she tries to learn their’s. Pearson praised Kennedy’s one-on-one defense, but admitted that there is still an emphasis on completing double-teams with players around her, either with Growney or one of the wings.
As the season progresses, Kennedy will likely settle further into her role as the team’s primary scorer, though Pearson said that she ultimately does not care who scores. Finnerty called Kennedy the leader of the forward line, and Pam Herter ’15 said that while she is more of a playmaker than a scorer, her impact on the game will not change.
“She’s matured as a player in terms of her decision making,” said Herter. “She makes [the forwards] a little faster. But the core of her game remains the same—very strong, very fast, unbelievable one-on-one skills. Every time she is on the field she is a scoring threat. It’s not pressure we put on her but it’s still sort of the reality of having her as a player.”

Athlete of the Week: Emma Chow '15

Women’s tennis captain Emma Chow ’15 shined at last weekend’s Intercollegiate Tennis Association New England Regional Championship, capturing second place and a qualification for the USTA/ITA National Small College Championships in South Carolina with her partner Tess Trinka ’18. The pair will participate in the tournament from October 9 through October 12.
This marks the first time the team will be represented at this event. The pair opened the Regional Championship seeded second, which surprised members of the team seeing as Chow and Trinka had only played together for a couple practices before the event.
“In the end, we actually lived up to our seeding,” Chow said. “I honestly don’t know how they came up with those. The team that beat us should have been seeded much higher as well.”
Head Coach Hobie Holbach is known for frequently mixing and matching his doubles line-ups, and he highly doubts that Chow and Trinka will play together in the spring.
“It’s great when [Chow] gets to play with a first-year,” Holbach said. “She can teach [her] along the way, by example and with words.”
Chow and Trinka’s path to the finals took them past the No. 1 pairs from Wesleyan and Amherst, as well as the No. 3 team from Williams. They escaped some close matches on the way, including a 9-8 (7-5) tiebreaker win and an 8-6 win.
“It was really about keeping our mental poise,” Chow said. “We had a few tight matches we could have lost.”
Chow said that she believes she and Trinka can win in South Carolina. Holbach said that competition in the Northeast region, where four of the nation’s top 10 teams reside, is comparable to what they should expect to see at nationals. Chow did note that Emory, last year’s national champion, would likely earn a spot in the tournament as well.
Chow received a tennis racket for her fourth birthday and began her tennis career shortly after. Until coming to Bowdoin, her father was the only coach she ever had.
Through playing in doubles leagues as a child, she developed an appreciation for the game and is now an experienced doubles player with a mastery of positioning and an aggressive net game.
“She knows what she’s supposed to do,” Holbach said. “She understands the doubles game and in terms of understanding situations, she’s outstanding.”
Holbach also played a large part in developing Chow’s much improved net game.“She goes to the net a lot because that’s what she’s best at,” he said. “I try to develop what they’re best at and avoid what they’re not so good at. Her whole game is structured around getting to the net… She probably does that more than anybody that she plays.”
This year, Chow has been developing a kick serve that reaches returners over their left shoulder, forcing right-handed players to hit a difficult backhand. In the past she tried to slice her serve down the “T” where the two services boxes meet. She still employs this technique on her approaches.
“She mostly slices,” sophomore Pilar Giffenig said. “On her forehand, she does hit topspin sometimes, but she mostly slices. It’s very low but it bounces deep so it’s hard to judge where it’s going to go. It makes it harder for the other person to attack.”
Sam Stalder ’17 mentioned that Chow’s height gives her an added advantage, especially with her new style of play.
“For me, I can’t go to the net right away because they’ll lob it right over me,” the 5’2” sophomore said. “But she’s much taller and stronger and very intimidating at the net”.
“She’s very consistent,” Giffenig added. “But she also hits it hard enough to put it away.”Chow is the only senior on the roster, and with junior captain Tiffany Cheng abroad this fall, she has been responsible for leading the particularly young team to its hot start.
“[Junior Tiffany Cheng] is gone so all I’ve got is a bunch of freshman and sophomores,” Holbach said. “They call her Mama Chow.”

Athlete of the Week

September 26, 2014

Kiersten Turner ’16 has been an integral part of the women’s soccer team’s best start in over a decade. She has scored three goals in just five games, and all of them have been game-winners. Two of her goals, one against Bates and another versus Middlebury, decided one-goal contests. Turner also recorded an assist in the Polar Bears’ win over Middlebury. Her performance won her the NESCAC Player of the Week recognition.

Turner has earned her a strong reputation as a goal scorer. She scored 12 goals last season and has retained her position at the top of the offensive formation. This year, as the team speeds forward, Turner spends most of her time daring defenders to chase her across the field. She purposefully runs to stretch the defense and can chase and hold the ball in her team’s end of the pitch, giving her teammates time to switch into the proper offensive formation and join her upfield.

Head Coach Brianne Weaver said that teams have started to focus their attention in Turner’s direction this season, marking her aggressively when she does not have the ball and swarming her when she tries to take a touch. As a player who enjoys winning individual matchups, Turner admits it has been more difficult to dominate in the way she has in the past.

“It’s been more mentally challenging for me—figuring out how to get around defenders,” she said. “I wasn’t thinking so much last year about how I was performing.”

“She sets a high standard for herself,” Weaver said. “With all the accolades that she earned last year and all the success that she had, I know that she wants to see that success again.”

It was not until the team’s third game this season that Turner earned a point. Teammate Jamie Hofstetter ’16 noted that Turner has been frustrated at times.

“During the first half of [the Middlebury game] she struggled,” she said. “They didn’t give her any time or space to move with the ball. You have to be dynamic moving off the ball so you’re always an option. The more stagnant you are the easier it is to close you down.”

“But she’s a nuisance,” Hofstetter continued. “She has really quick bursts of speed and she’s really good at getting a touch on the ball. It happens really easily sometimes.”

Turner said she takes a bit of solace in knowing that her presence opens the field up for her new partner, Amanda Kinneston ’15, who has absorbed most of the time Hofstetter had seen as the other forward over the last two years. Hofstetter has moved to playing center midfield but in certain formations still plays forward with Kinneston and Turner, or in place of Kinneston.

This helps both players stay rested by not having to play in the center midfield position for the full 90 minutes. While Kinneston labels herself as more of a goal-scorer—her stats are identical to Turner’s so far this season—she bears more similarities to Hofstetter than Turner. Both have excellent technical skills, work as facilitators and are often praised for their skill holding the ball.

“I think we’re similarly-minded players,” Kinneston said. “We like to have the ball and play from our feet. Kiersten is good at running to the ball and using space.”

Still, it is not rare to see all three of them putting pressure on the opposing defenses, particularly as they try to clear the ball out of their own end. Weaver has emphasized an aggressive team defense that starts with the forwards and Kinneston has said it makes it easier for the midfielders and defenders to read where balls go. In this scenario, Turner often remains alone when facing the defensive line.

The team started its season with four straight conference wins in a row, all of which were decided by one goal, including a double win against Wesleyan and wins against Amherst and Middlebury. Turner’s teammates expect her to her hit stride as the season wears on. The Polar Bears will play two non-conference games before finishing their conference schedule.

“I think Kiersten does better as the season goes on,” Hofstetter said. “Once she scores a goal, her confidence goes up. Every game makes her more comfortable.”

Comments are permanently closed.