Believing in one’s ability plays a key role in athletics. And the NIU women’s field hockey team needs to believe in itself as the 1989 fall season approaches.

The Huskies finished the 1988 schedule with a 15-3-1 record—good enough to rank them 19th in the nation in the final NCAA poll. However, the ‘89 season should present a formidable challenge for the thirsty Huskies.

NIU finds itself in a new conference loaded with strong teams. The Midwest Collegiate Field Hockey Conference is headed by powerhouses Iowa and Northwestern along with Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State and NIU.

The reason this conference looks so much like the Big Ten conference is because Purdue dropped its field hockey program, which caused the conference to search for another team. Because NIU fit well geographically, it was selected. However, the name of the conference had to be changed from the Big Ten to the MCFHC.

“We (the newly formed conference) will not have an automatic bid,” said head coach Laurie Bell referring to the former Big Ten conference’s automatic bid to the NCAA. “Now we’re on a probational status until 1990 to see if we can get the bid back.”

Bid or not, the Huskies look to use their momentum from a recent national indoor championship to carry them into the fall season. The players are excited about the upcoming season and when September 8th rolls arounds the Huskies can kick off the season with a game against Saint Louis University at Huskie Stadium.

“I’d like to break back into the Top 20,” Bell said. “I’d like to get back in there early and stay there and possibly make a little movement. We’ve had a good recruiting year, probably one of my strongest recruiting seasons. We’re gonna have it tough this year playing several nationally-ranked programs. If we can go out early and knock someone off it would be a great starting point.

Despite the loss of key players Annemarie Roozendaal and Colleen Preston, Bell looks at a roster of talent.

Leading the scoring attack for NIU will be last season’s number two scorer and Honorable Mention All-Midwest selection Laura Wehrman along with Regina Vanderwerf, Lisa Sorrentino and Jady Psek.

In the middle, Bell will count on veteran Amy Lynn and newcomer Maaike Schroeder. On Defense, sweeper Jenny McCreary and back Julie Teaman hope to stop opposing teams, while the wing position will be filled by Debbie Beans along with freshman Alice Wassman and Kristina Hahn.

Former goalie Colleen Preston, now an assitant to Bell, finished the ’88 season with nine shutouts and a college degree. The goalie position will likley be filled by either Christy Reiff or Jeltje Janssen.