November 3, 2005

FARMVILLE, Va. – Longwood University field hockey seniors Sarah Hitchings/Virginia Beach (Kempsville) and Alexis Ramey/Westminster, Calif. (Marina) have been named to the 2005 Northern Pacific Field Hockey All-Conference Second Team. California’s Valentina Godfrid was named NorPac Player of the Year and Offensive Player of the Year, teammate Jessica Bird was Defensive Player of the Year, Stanford’s Caroline Hussey was Rookie of the Year and California’s Shellie Onstead was named Coach of the Year.  

Hitchings, a 6-0 midfielder/defender, finished the year playing and starting in all 17 contests for the Lancers. She scored three goals and tallied one assist for seven points. The senior captain tallied a goal against Georgetown (9/7), Top-25 American (9/25) and Virginia (9/28) and had her lone assist versus NorPac opponent Appalachian State (10/7).  

Ramey, a 5-4 forward, played and started in 15 games for Longwood, scoring a team-high seven goals and adding one assist for a team-leading 15 points. Two of her goals this season were game-winning goals; one came in a 3-2 victory over NorPac opponent Appalachian State and the other in a 6-2 victory over St. Francis (Pa.) (10/2). Ramey also tallied a hat-trick against St. Francis (Pa.). She started and played in five conference games; scoring one goal on six shots. 

“Sarah and Alexis are well deserving of these honors,” said head coach Nancy Joel. “It is really nice to see our players and our program get rewarded in its first season in a Division I conference.”

In addition to these two all-conference honors, three Longwood players earned NorPac weekly accolades throughout the season. Senior defender Shannon Ratte/Virginia Beach (Kempsville), junior defender Katie Murphy/Virginia Beach (Princess Anne) and sophomore goalkeeper Avanell Schmitz/Newport News (Denbigh) all earned Defender of the Week honors.

Longwood finished the 2005 campaign with a 4-13 overall record and a 1-5 record in its initial season in the NorPac.