Dean Field Hockey’s Unprecedented Season: A Look at the Past and What’s Still to Come
- Natalie Zona
- 4 days ago
- 5 min read
Dean Field Hockey became the first program in the school’s history to clinch the number one seed in the GNAC playoffs.
After a strong start and a slump in the beginning of the season, Dean found their stride at the perfect time and never looked back. After losing five straight games in September, the team has gone 10-2 to finish the season and move strongly into playoffs.
With conference playoffs, the overall record doesn’t matter as much as the conference record does, which luckily for Dean, they did well with both records. They went 13-7 on the season and 9-1 in the conference, their only loss being to Colby Sawyer. Colby Sawyer is now the #3 seed after their conference losses to New England College and Saint Joseph’s College of Maine.
After a 2-1 win over Simmons University, the Bulldogs were officially crowned regular season champions of the GNAC, meaning the entirety of the playoffs will run through Dean as long as they keep winning. This all means nothing once the postseason starts though, because all that matters is single game wins or you’re sent home.
“In the first round it’s just going to be how well we can handle pressure,” Senior Captain Emma Mock stated. “We’ve never been in a position where we were favored to make it past the first round. If we’re able to handle it well enough to move forward, that would speak towards our work ethic throughout the season.”
The Bulldogs have had a lot of success this year and the last, marking the first year they made playoffs as a program, but it wasn’t always this way. Current Head Coach Megan Gutierrez started at Dean in 2022 when the Bulldogs finished winless with a 0-16 record. She picked up her first win as the Head Coach in September of 2023, but they still only won 2 games.
Megan said that prior to her first season, she put together a five-year plan for the program and for herself as a coach. In year one, she knew that she needed to recruit players to build up the culture the way that she envisioned it. It was about building a foundation and setting standards for the years to come.
The seniors this year are Allie Stockwell, Emma Mock, and Sydnee Ramos, which were Megan’s first class of freshman that she recruited and coached at Dean. “I vividly remember talking to them during their sophomore year and asking them what their class wanted to be known for. I remember Sydnee said she wanted to be known as the class that won it all. They all agreed,” Megan said. “I’m sure this means the world to them too because they know what it’s like to have nothing and they know how hard they’ve had to work.”
For year two, the focus was on numbers, so she brought in a large group of recruits. She ended up being able to recruit ten freshmen that year and six of them are still on the team now. Year three gave Megan the opportunity to be more selective with her recruiting because of the steps she took in years past to build up the program. Last year whenever she stepped on the field she said, “The girls teach me something, I learn something from them, and that’s always the focus.”
Last year, 2024, was the year when everything came together. They quadrupled their win total and made playoffs by securing the #8 seed. They also won five conference games when they had only won one in the previous year. They unfortunately lost in the first round to #1 seeded Johnson and Wales, who went on to win the conference championship.
Coming into this year, Megan was confident with her players and how to coach them due to the time that she had spent with returners and having a full spring session with them. She said, “That’s where the off season work fully came in. We heavily went over small-sided concepts, and I built every single one of them up individually a lot. They all put in a lot of effort and a lot of personal growth.”
The dual sport athletes were also able to come into the preseason and gel very easily with everyone else. Megan mentioned, "Consistency is a common theme for this year. It’s learning what we did well in practices and games and learning how to keep those skills consistent.”
All of this encapsulates the work that these athletes and coaches have done in the last four years to turn the tables and become the #1 seed now in their 2025 season. Megan brought up that the same top four teams in the conference have been fighting for the top spots for so long, and it’s great for Dean to now be at the top. Other coaches in the conference have made it a point to tell her that they can see how much the team has improved and how much the Dean athletes want the wins.
“Some of them have the perspective of never winning a game or being blown out 8-0,” Megan said. “They have that perspective and now they know they never want to go back to that.”
This season has been filled with monumental moments for the program as well. Multiple players have earned weekly honors from Dean and the GNAC such as Sydnee Ramos and Shea Cassani. Other players have exceeded milestones like Sara Gardner surpassing 200 career saves and Emily Yazzetti reaching 50 career points. One of the biggest moments of the season was Katrina Lee's double overtime goal against New England College that was crucial for Dean to get the number one seed. All these individual achievements have helped the team work towards their ultimate goal.
The idea of a championship season has been instilled in everyone’s minds since the preseason. They’ve consistently talked about what a championship team looks like and have even had constant reminders posted in the locker room of how a championship team treats their teammates, creates a culture, and other mindset driven things.
With playoffs looming, the mindset has not changed. One game at a time, playing their style of field hockey.
#1 Dean will host #8 Rivier University at 11 am on Grant Field on November 1st to kick off the first round of the GNAC playoffs. In their matchup earlier this season, Dean was able to pick up an 8-1 win over the Raiders.
