Sailors’ quest for three

Bryce Alderton and Steve Virgen

Newport Harbor High field hockey coach Sharon Wolfe will look to

several new girls to complement the returners she has from last

season’s 19-3 team that won its second Sunset League crown in a row

and reached the Tournament of Champions final for the second straight

year.

“We have nine or 10 girls who can play on the front line,” Wolfe

said. “We have quite a few girls up from the (junior varsity) who are

seniors.”

Wolfe lost six seniors from last year’s team, including defenders

Alison McKenzie, Athena Vasquez and Carlin Schneider, but expects

those spots to be filled, keeping the defense strong.

Vasquez has a letter of intent for softball and has been scouted,

Wolfe said.

“We lost our basic back unit,” Wolfe said.

Even with the losses, Wolfe has plenty of girls to fill in the

spaces around the returners that include midfielder Jill Whitfield,

co-captains Amanda Wittman (goalie) and Christina Barbatti, last

year’s Sunset League Co-Offensive Player of the Year Kaley Nix,

Kirsten Chamberlain, Chloe Cox and Caitlin Farrell.

Wolfe expects verbal leadership to come from Wittman.

“The strongest one in (verbal leadership) is Wittman, she has more

experience than most of the girls and that should help us,” Wolfe

said.

Two players Wolfe pulled up from junior varsity are Ashley

Gleason, the team’s only sophomore, whom Wolfe said will play

defense, and junior Ashley Harrison.

“(Harrison) is going to be pretty strong for us,” Wolfe said. “She

has a tremendous amount of speed and she’s our best player at

creating space. They both have quite a lot of maturity.”

Wolfe has also pulled up three front-line players from last

season’s junior varsity squad in Kristin Jendrusina and Allison

Rawlins to go with junior varsity midfielder last season Kerrie

Gates, Lauren Curtis, Meagan McHone and Dana Owad, who “should add

some good strength,” according to Wolfe.

Tiffany Vandersloot, Danielle Pfaff and avid snowboarder Chanelle

Sladics round out the roster for Wolfe, who said this year’s team

“has fairly good chemistry.”

Wolfe said the Sunset League should be improved from last year,

which makes winning a third-straight league title all the more

difficult.

“We should finish in the top four, but the league has gotten

better,” Wolfe said. “(Winning league) could happen, but that’s more

of a long-term (goal). A couple players are talking about a

three-peat but that’s going to be tough. We are weaker on the front

line this year.”

Marina lost 14 seniors, but has a strong junior varsity program

and Edison will be tough again, Wolfe said.

Marina has defeated Newport, 1-0, in each the last two T of C

finals.

Newport opens its season Thursday at Edison at 3:15 p.m.