Stuart repeat meant to be

Tartans top Allentown field hockey again for county

By: Bob Nuse
   Call the rivalry even.
   For the last four years, the Stuart Country Day School field hockey team has faced Allentown in the Mercer County Tournament championship game. The first two times they met, not only did Allentown win, but Stuart failed to score a goal. But the last two years, well, it’s been Stuart that prevailed.
   The latest win came Saturday, when the Tartans scored two minutes into the game and coasted to a 4-0 win at Princeton High School.
   "For the seniors, we were really prepared," said Kelly Bruvik, who scored the first Stuart goal off a pass from Liz Colicchio. "We’ve played them the last three years and we knew what was at stake. I think the underclassmen really understood how important everything was.
   "After PDS (a 1-0 win in the semifinals), we knew we had to score early in the first half. We’ve only been shut out in the first half twice this year and we didn’t want to let that happen again."
   Megan Fitzpatrick, another senior, would add a goal for the Tartans, while sophomore Jackie Gaudioso Radvany scored twice. Allentown managed just two shots on goal against a tough Stuart defense.
   "Freshman and sophomore year we got shut out," Bruvik recalled. "Last year it meant a lot to win. And this year I think we showed that private school against public school, we could still do it. We watched them play Hightstown and they played similarly. We had played Hightstown earlier this year and we did well.
   "We lost really good seniors last year. But I felt like because we did lose such really good seniors, people knew what they had to do. Eleanor (Hayes-Larson) knew she had to replace Alice (Murnen). We had returning players like me, Meg and Liz, who have been in this situation and we knew what it would take to win again."
   The win helped Stuart, which had beaten Montclair Kimberley, 5-1, in the state Prep A semifinals the day before, improve to 16-0-1. The Tartans were scheduled to face Ranney on Monday with a chance to capture the Patriot Division championship. On Wednesday they will face either Princeton Day or Newark Academy in the prep school semifinals.
   Beating a traditionally power like Allentown for a second straight year is a feather in the cap of the Tartans.
   "Each year we go in with the same mentality, that they are a good team with good skills," Fitzpatrick said. "They’re a great team, so every year we know we have to go out really hard because we know their potential.
   "I think we’re the first Stuart team to go four times in a row in the Mercer County championships. And we’ve had this game in the back of our minds for the whole season. We wanted to get here again for a fourth time in a row."
   Somehow, Stuart has been able to overcome big graduation losses each year and come back and play even better. There were huge holes to fill coming into this season, but the Tartans have not missed a beat.
   "My mom is a lot of that," Bruvik said of her mother, Missy, the longtime Stuart coach. "She’s been doing this forever. Once the tournament starts, we’re in an entirely different mindset. Like today, she said we had to come out and score five and we scored four. We’re always positive and feel like we should win the game if we play well."
   Added Fitzpatrick: "Every year we know we have to come out really hard, because Allentown has consistently been a real good team. We knew we had to come and play our hardest right from the beginning. Scoring right away was really exciting. But I don’t think the score really reflected the game. The competition was really fierce."
   Last year, Stuart won the MCT, then fell in the prep final to Lawrenceville. This year, Stuart has won the MCT, and now will look to add a second championship. But before they could think about the prep tournament, the Tartans had to deal with the MCT final.
   "It was a team goal of getting back here and having a chance," Missy Bruvik said. "They just play well together. The experience factor helps. The whole front line is back and the defense learned a lot from last year. The whole year of doing this almost exactly the same way, I think that has greatly contributed to today’s game.
   "Now that this is over, we play Ranney on Monday for the Patriot Conference. And we’ll deal with whatever we’re dealt with on Wednesday. This team, all year, we’ve just taken one game at a time and we don’t get ahead of ourselves at all. That’s not their nature. They come to practice and work hard. As long as they do that, then whatever happens is meant to be."
   And for the second straight year, what was meant to be was a Mercer County championship.