WESTFIELD, Mass. – Westfield State University field hockey capped the 2021 season with two student-athletes named to the Little East Conference All-Conference team and head coach Jessica Bergen was announced as the Coach of the Year.
Senior forward Cheryl Latona (Granby, Conn. / Granby Memorial HS) was named to the first team, while sophomore defender Bre Foley (South Hadley, Mass. / South Hadley HS) was noted as a third-team selection.
Latona led the Owls with 12 goals and six assists for 18 points on the season. Latona wraps up a 3-year playing career with 25 goals and 12 assists for 62 points. Latona finishes 10th on the Owls career points list.
Foley played in 18 of the Owls 19 games with 16 starts, and finished the year with three defensive saves while also helping initiate the Owls transition into the offensive zone.
Foley was playing her first season of college field hockey, while Latona missed what would have been her junior season, as schedules were canceled in the fall of 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Bergen's Owls improved steadily after an 0-4 start to the season in which they were outscored 18-5. Westfield won six straight games in midseason to climb into the lead in the Little East standings, before dropping their final two games of the year to finish fifth, as two games separated the top five teams in a hotly-contested conference race.
Bergen is in her 10th year leading the Owls program, with a career record of 82-93. The 2021 Owls finished four wins better than in 2019 when they last played. The Owls were picked ninth in the 2021 preseason coaches' poll.
Additonally, Owls junior Mariah Colbert (Gloucester, Mass./Rockport) was named to the Little East's 12th Player award for Westfield State, which is comprised of one individual per program as selected by each head coach, " presented to a student-athlete in recognition of their positive contributions to the team both on and off the field, who brings forth their best effort in competition, practice and other team activities that positively contribute to the success of the program,' according to the LEC's sport code.
Colbert played in 11 games for the Owls this season as a reserve forward.
The Owls finished the year 8-4 in conference play, and were in contention for the top seed in the league tournament until the final week of the season. Westfield finished the season 9-10 overall after a heartbreaking 3-2, last-second loss at Southern Maine in the opening round of the LEC Tournament.