Two years ago, the Pembroke Academy field hockey program ended autumn with back-to-back winless seasons. This year, the Spartans ended under the lights in the Division II tournament.
Making its first postseason appearance since 2017, No. 13 Pembroke struggled to keep up with No. 4 Hollis-Brookline on its turf field, allowing two goals in the first five minutes of Wednesday night’s prelim en route to a 4-0 loss.
But for the Spartans, after winning just one game in the previous three seasons combined (they went 1-13-0 last year), ending the season with a 6-8-1 record is a victory for the program.
“(Hollis) got a couple goals early, we were on their turf field and they’re a very skilled team,” Pembroke head coach Steve Langevin said. “We were a little bit tentative in front of our own net, but after that we competed with them.”
Lindsay Dattis and Sabrina Hill netted the two goals in the first quarter for the Cavaliers (11-3-1), and Hailey Arseneau scored with 2:38 left in the second quarter for a 3-0 halftime lead.
Senior goalie Lillian Corbitt had an incalculable number of saves for Pembroke and senior co-captain Kelsey Montambeault knocked down a rocket of a shot with her stick on the goal line. But Nyah Jernberg scored the final goal for the Cavaliers in the fourth quarter while Pembroke only put two shots on Hollis-Brookline’s cage in the entire game.
“(Hollis is) a very skilled group, but we didn’t embarrass ourselves,” Langevin said. “We went in, we were going to compete and try to beat them. It was a good experience for them to play on the turf, under the lights in the tournament.”
It’s a far cry from where the Spartans were when Langevin took over in fall 2020. He assumed a team that had just gone 0-14-0 in 2019 and he had to go from classroom to classroom at Pembroke Academy just to recruit enough girls to fill out a varsity roster.
“We just don’t have a feeder program,” Langevin said. “We’re one of the few in the division that doesn’t have one.”
Another key ingredient also was missing – confidence. But after taking Hanover and Kennett to overtime in two of the first three games of the season (both teams are now in the D-II quarterfinals) and earning more wins in this season than in the previous four combined, the Spartans are brimming with confidence.
“At this point, they’re finally getting to the point where their heads are up,” Langevin said. “They’re confident in themselves. They played much more together as a group.”
The Spartan seniors persevered through some tough seasons as underclassmen but worked on their skills in the offseason. When preseason rolled around in August, 10 seniors suited up for Pembroke out 31 total players in the program — enough for a full JV team.
Co-captain and midfielder Natalie Longacre is one of those seniors who stood out this season.
“Natalie is our connection to get it from the defense up to the offense,” Langevin said. “She’s by far our best stickhandler; she gets through people. She created a lot of our offensive chances that other players put in. Her play in the midfield is really what transitioned us from one end to the other.”
The Spartans have some strong players back for next season, including junior defender Treic Thomas-Guerzon, who shut down opposition along the left flank, and sophomore Camdyn Despres, the leading scorer with 11 goals in her first season ever playing field hockey, was able to capitalize on the entire unit working the ball up the field.
“They’re a tight group, and they really feed off each other,” Langevin said of his squad. “The whole is more than the sum of its parts. That’s the way this group is. We don’t have any stars that will dazzle you, but we have a lot of kids that work hard and work together.
“I’m really proud of this group and what they accomplished, especially where they’ve come from.”