Sailors remain on track

Bryce Alderton

Changes might surround the Newport Harbor High field hockey team this

season, but the Sailors have produced a solid start in the early

going.

Newport, which lost 14 seniors from the team that won the

program’s first Los Angeles Field Hockey Association Tournament of

Champions title a year ago, has a new coach and several first-year

varsity players, but the expectations haven’t waned a bit.

Despite a coaching shuffle, the Sailors were 4-2-1, including

abbreviated tournament games, heading into Thursdays game with new

coach Kristy Cross. Cross started the season as Newport’s junior

varsity coach, but agreed to take over the varsity reins for Piper

Archibald to better coincide with each others’ schedules.

Archibald teaches fourth grade at Wilson Elementary School and

found it difficult to get to the 3:15 p.m. weekday games on time

compared with Cross, a Spanish teacher at Newport.

The Sailors gave Cross her first victory in her inaugural game as

a varsity coach with a 2-0 win over Bonita Tuesday.

Cross takes over the reins of a program Sharon Wolfe guided the

last eight before resigning following last fall. Wolfe is now a

co-coach at Westminster.

Cross inherits a team of five returners, but all of them played

fairly significant roles on last year’s squad, which went 20-1,

allowing just two goals all season. Newport has gone 38-1-1 the past

two seasons and has reached the TOC title game the past four years.

And the Sailors have showed similar signs of success in the early

going, Cross said.

“They are incredible. They have tons of talent,” said Cross, who

played forward for Del Mar High in San Jose. “I think they could go

far and some of them could get picked up by college scouts.”

Jillianne Whitfield, one of the key contributors to Newport’s

championship last fall, has played in three of the University of

Michigan’s first six games.

Newport will have speed up front with forwards Julia Bernay and

Whitney Browman while senior goalkeeper Ciara Lawrence takes over for

Amanda Wittman, who recorded 18 shutouts last season.

Lawrence tallied her fourth straight shutout in the victory over

Bonita.

“[Lawrence] has played heads-up for us and made so many saves,”

Cross said.

Newport’s returners include seniors Jenny Taylor, Reese Simmons

and Lyndsi Foster, along with juniors Danica Kalmbach and Lara

Schilling. Kalmbach, Schilling and Simmons play primarily at forward

while Taylor and Foster anchor the midfield.

Simmons and Taylor, both four-year varsity members, have impressed

Cross.

“They are very similar in terms of how powerful they are as

players,” Cross said.

Newport’s front line also includes seniors Amanda Fallon, Katie

Kelly and Laura Vassar, along with junior Sienna Palmer.

Seniors Clemmie Anderson and Aly Ramser, along with junior Jackie

Taylor, and sophomore Rachel Foster, give added strength to the

midfield.

The defense will be bolstered by seniors Jaclyn Drake, Kirstie

Lane and Ashley McIntosh with help from juniors Darci Pennington and

Ashton Rief.

Cross, a cheerleading advisor last year at Newport, said the

transition to head coach was smooth.

“The girls are so welcoming,” she said. “They are ready to learn,

ready to practice, willing to work hard and accepting of anyone who

comes in.”