St. Joe’s field hockey head coach Lynn Farquhar has added yet another accolade to a quickly expanding list.
St. Joe’s defeated Saint Louis University 3-0 on Oct. 3, advancing to 3-0 in the Atlantic 10 (A-10) Conference and 9-3 overall. This marks Farquhar’s 100th win as the head coach at St. Joe’s. Among those 100 wins are a slew of accomplishments, including four consecutive A-10 Coach of the Year Awards from 2016-19.
Even though 100 wins is an impressive achievement, Farquhar treated the win as she would any other victory.
“Our focus was just on today’s game and getting a little bit better as a team,” Farquhar said. “That’s been our focus this fall.”
Over Farquhar’s eight-year tenure, the program has won four consecutive regular season A-10 championships from 2016-19 and three consecutive A-10 tournament championships from 2017-19.
According to Renie Shields ’82, senior associate athletics director for student experience, Farquhar set strong goals for her players when she arrived on Hawk Hill.
“She has created a culture where excellence is expected,” Shields said. “She had goals in mind and she didn’t stray from her goals.”
Shields attributed some of the team’s success to Farquhar’s standards of excellence.
“She wanted them all to be driven, to be passionate about what they do, and love what they do,” Shields said. “I think that you will see that is why there is so much consistency with the teams.”
Fifth-year back and co-captain Nicholl Fenton, said the program has grown significantly since she first arrived on Hawk Hill because of Farquhar.
“The only thing [the team] had won was an A-10 regular season title with [Farquhar], and my freshman year we won the title in the regular season and the [A-10] tournament,” Fenton said. “She cultivated a culture and just completely changed the program outlook.”
According to fifth-year midfielder and co-captain Cassidy Atchison, Farquhar always expects the players to improve both on and off the field.
“She is big on not just developing us as athletes, but as people too,” Atchison said. “That’s the St. Joe’s mission, but in terms of athletics she wants our best.”
Farquhar said her drive to improve the team and the players only works because of the women that make up her team.
“We’ve brought in a great group of young women who’ve been willing to believe in something greater than themselves, invest in this team and then really just work every day to be a little bit better as a person and as a teammate,” Farquhar said.
Farquhar said she has a unique group of players who want to and will continue to build upon the legacy of the field hockey program.
“We are going to keep on working hard,” Farquhar said. “We are going to keep bringing our alumni back to give us inspiration and we are going to keep on looking for baby Hawks that are willing to take risks.”
