Appalachian State’s field hockey team recently gained an entirely new line of players that head coach Brandi Kist feels very confident about for the upcoming spring and fall seasons.

The team’s previous season ended on a rough note (3-15), but with many new faces on the team, the Mountaineers hope to drastically improve their record from the fall season.

Expectations are high for the first game.

With six new recruits coming into next year’s fall season, former All-Ohio Sophie Tikson, a first semester freshman forward from Ohio, joins her team a semester early.

She is the only recruit for the team’s spring semester and, according to Kist, has great potential for this upcoming season.

“I’m expecting to be challenged well because I’m at a different level from high school. It’s going to be really different,” Tikson said.

Including Tikson, the team is going into next fall with what Kist described as one of their strongest recruiting classes yet.

“They’re going to be very motivated in our spring competition,” Kist said.

Kist described her team as having great chemistry as even the players who are expected to join the team next fall already speak to each other, as well as the current field hockey team.

“We have a lot of bonding,” Tikson said. “We’re really close.”

Kist said the entire current list of freshmen had a lot of experience this previous season, and now they’re ready to take that experience and put it into a brand new season.

“We just need to work hard to get to where we need to be,” Tikson said.

Story: JESS LYONS, Intern Sports Reporter

Photo: ANEISY CARDO, Staff Photographer