The Old Dominion Monarchs field hockey team (formerly the Lady Monarchs) represents

Old Dominion University Old Dominion University (ODU) is a Public university, public research university in Norfolk, Virginia, United States. Established in 1930 as the two-year Norfolk Division of the College of William & Mary, it began by educating people with fewer ...

Norfolk, Virginia Norfolk ( ) is an independent city (United States), independent city in the U.S. state of Virginia. It had a population of 238,005 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List of cities in Virginia, third-most populous city ...

. The team currently competes as a

Big East Conference The Big East Conference (stylized as BIG EAST) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference that competes in National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA NCAA Division I, Division I in 10 men's sports and 12 women's sports. H ...

affiliate of

NCAA Division I NCAA Division I (D-I) is the highest division of intercollegiate athletics sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States, which accepts players globally. D-I schools include the major collegiate athlet ...

field hockey Field hockey (or simply referred to as hockey in some countries where ice hockey is not popular) is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with 11 players in total, made up of 10 field players and a goalk ...

History

The Old Dominion field hockey program initiated as the Norfolk Division Braves of the

College of William & Mary The College of William & Mary (abbreviated as W&M) is a public university, public research university in Williamsburg, Virginia, United States. Founded in 1693 under a royal charter issued by King William III of England, William III and Queen ...

in 1930, competing with local high school clubs and trade schools prior to its independence. Once the independent Old Dominion College was established after governor

Albertis Harrison Albertis Sydney Harrison Jr. (January 11, 1907 – January 23, 1995) was an American politician and jurist. A member of the Democratic Party associated with Virginia's Byrd Organization, he served as the 59th governor of Virginia from 1962 to ...

dissolved the William & Mary college system in 1962, the field hockey program began competitions with other local, independent college clubs. Competitions expanded past the local level after the hiring of head coach Beth Anders in the early 1980s. Under her 30-season tenure as head coach, the Monarchs achieved nine NCAA tournament championship titles, producing six

Honda Sports Award The Honda Sports Award is an annual award in the United States, given to the best collegiate female athlete in each of twelve sports. There are four nominees for each sport, and the twelve winners of the Honda Sports Award are automatically in t ...

winners and 17 competitors in the

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games (Olympics; ) are the world's preeminent international Olympic sports, sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a Multi-s ...

. Anders helped the U.S. field hockey team win bronze in the

1984 Summer Olympics The 1984 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXIII Olympiad and commonly known as Los Angeles 1984) were an international multi-sport event held from July 28 to August 12, 1984, in Los Angeles, California, United States. It marked the ...

, won 12 CAA Coach of the Year awards, and was the winningest coach in NCAA history upon her retirement. The Monarchs hired former

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

forward Andrew Griffiths following Anders' departure. Griffiths remains as ODU's head coach as of the 2023 season. The Monarchs previously competed in the

Colonial Athletic Association The Coastal Athletic Association (CAA), formerly the ECAC South Conference and the Colonial Athletic Association, is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA' ...

from 1991 to 2012 prior to Old Dominion's move to the FBS. While

Conference USA Conference USA (CUSA) is a collegiate athletic conference of member institutions in the Southern and Western United States. The conference participates in the NCAA's Division I in all sports. CUSA's offices are located in Dallas, Texas. Mem ...

served as ODU's primary conference starting in 2013, they did not sponsor field hockey as a sport. The field hockey program joined the new

as an associate member following its conference realignment.

Stadium

The Monarchs play their games at the Powhatan Sports Complex on ODU campus in

, which permanently seats 1,500 and holds an

AstroTurf AstroTurf is an American subsidiary of SportGroup that produces artificial turf for pitch (sports field), playing surfaces in sports. The original AstroTurf product was a pile (textile), short-pile synthetic turf invented in 1965 by Monsanto. Si ...

playing surface. The venue has received national attention through its hosting of three

NCAA Division I field hockey tournament The NCAA Division I field hockey tournament is an American intercollegiate field hockey tournament conducted by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), and determines the Division I national champion. The tournament has been held a ...

s. The Old Dominion field hockey program previously played at Foreman Field (now S.B. Ballard Stadium) prior to the establishment of the sports complex in 2008. The complex was built to provide a home to ODU field hockey due to the re-establishment of their football program in 2009, which would replace the stadium's occupancy during the fall sports season. Three previous NCAA tournament championships were played at Foreman Field, including the 2000 championship won by Old Dominion.

History

Stadium

All-time record

Individual honors

See also

References

External links