GL Sports

LOCAL COLLEGE ROUNDUP

By TOM ROBINSON For Go Lackawanna

Marywood University made an adjustment in its coaching staff just days before the beginning of practice for the fall sports season.

Megan Bullock was named head field hockey coach Thursday.

Dr. Mary Jo Gunning, Marywood director of athletics and recreation, made the announcement. Bullock moves up from assistant coach to replace Carla Chiampi, who recently resigned after three seasons.

“It kind of falls into place nicely for me,” said Bullock, who works as a dental technician in Wyoming. “Last year was kind of a trial run to see if I could balance coaching with work.”

Bullock, an Elk Lake High School and Lock Haven University graduate, helped Lock Haven win four straight regular-season titles in the Division I Northeast Conference from 2004-07 and back-to-back NEC Tournament titles in her junior and senior seasons.

After her playing career, Bullock remained with the Lady Eagles as a volunteer coach, contributing to another NEC Tournament championship in 2008. She has been a coach and counselor at East Coast Field Hockey Camp in Estella since 2004.

Bullock ran last week’s field hockey camp at Marywood.

She said a similar college playing background and philosophy to Chiampi means the team will not have to undergo any major tactical changes.

“I think the main thing I want to focus on is getting out and recruiting locally,” Bullock said. “We get some local kids to come and see our facilities, but if we can get out and show up and they see our faces more, that should help.”

Marywood went 4-4 in the Colonial States Athletic Conference in 2009, qualifying for the playoffs as the fifth seed before finishing 8-9 overall.

NATIONALLY RANKED

The Penn State women’s soccer team opens the season ranked 13th in the NCAA Division I poll.

Julie Hubbard, a sophomore forward/midfielder from Abington Heights, is in competition for a possible starting spot with the Nittany Lions.

Penn State has won the last 12 Big Ten titles.

OPENING DAY

Bullock will make her coaching debut September 1, which will be opening day for the majority of local college fall sports teams.

The Pacers will play at Scranton in a 4 p.m. game. Marywood is also at Scranton in men’s and women’s cross country openers.

The Marywood-Scranton field hockey game is the first of two events at Scranton’s Fitzpatrick Field that day.

William Paterson will be at Scranton in men’s soccer at 7 p.m. The schools’ women’s soccer teams will meet at the same time in New Jersey.

Marywood and Wilkes will take a similar approach to opening the soccer season. The men’s teams will play at Marywood and the women’s teams will play at Wilkes in a pair of 7 p.m. games.

The first events will be played by the Baptist Bible women’s tennis and Keystone women’s soccer teams on the road.

BBC is at Philadelphia Biblical at 3 p.m. in women’s tennis.

Keystone is at the College of St. Elizabeth at 3:30 p.m. in women’s soccer.

The Keystone field hockey team will play at King’s at 4 p.m.

Keystone will be home at 7 p.m. in women’s volleyball against Alvernia.

BBC’s only home event is in women’s soccer against Cazenovia at 4 p.m.

The BBC men’s soccer team is at Penn State-Altoona at 6:30 p.m. and the women’s volleyball team is at Lycoming at 7 p.m.