News Release - October 30, 2008 - Asheville High School’s Field Hockey team finished regular season play on a cold and blustery Tuesday night with a 5 – 1 win at NW Guilford High School in Greensboro. This victory and a regular season record of 20 wins and 1 loss have earned the Cougars the Number 1 seed in the N.C. High School StateTournament.

AHS Field Hockey Seniors (L-R Elizabeth Keil,Kelly Olesiuk (Co-Captain), Elizabeth Gaston, Mallory Silver (Co-Captain), and Hannah Dave (Co-Captain))

This year’s senior class holds a career record of 78 Wins and only 14 losses. As freshman these girls began the year on the Junior Varsity Team, but by the end of their Freshman year, this year’s three Captains started the on the Varsity in the State Finals against Chapel Hill. Last year the team’s season again ended with a loss to Chapel Hill in the State Championship game. These 5 seniors were All Conference last year.

Elizabeth Keil, Kelly Olesiuk, Mallory Silver, and Hannah Dave were also selected to the All State team, while Keil was named Offensive player of the year and Dave was named Defensive player of the year.

Quarter final rounds are being played at the higher seed’s home field. Saturday at 4:00 PM Asheville will take on Number 8 seed NW Guilford in a rematch of last Tuesday night’s contest. Should the Cougars continue past the quarters, their quest for a third

This year will most likely be no different than the previous trips, in that the road will most likely have togo through a match up with at least one of the Chapel Hill teams. Both Chapel Hill High School and East Chapel Hill High School are expected to be in the Field Hockey “Final Four”. These two schools have dominated High School Field Hockey Championships in North Carolina. The Cougars will be looking for several years of revenge.