Dal field hockey team looks to bring season success into the playoffs

If you happen to stumble upon Wickwire Field on a Tuesday or Thursday evening, you are likely to be met by a palpable energy. The drive and motivation of Dalhousie University’s field hockey team are evident even from the sidelines. 

This season, the Dalhousie University field hockey club aims to build on its 2025 success, bringing new energy and experience to the field as it works to return to the 2026 U Sports championship playoffs. 

The Tigers have eight wins and two losses in the regular season, good for second in the AUS field hockey conference. Their final two games of the regular season will be held at Saint Mary’s University on Oct. 18. 

The U Sports championship playoffs will be hosted by the University of Waterloo in Ontario from Nov. 4 to 8. 

The Tigers got their first taste of tournament action at a six-team contest hosted by StFX in mid-September. The Tigers won three games and lost one in Antigonish. 

“That first tournament is really just to find our chemistry, then also figure out what we need to work on,” says Danielle Dempsey, the team’s head coach. 

The team is looking to build both physically and mentally after a fourth-place finish at the 2025 U Sports championship hosted in Charlottetown, which consisted of four teams representing their regions.

“From U Sports last year, we were able to take away some skills and goals that we really wanted to work on,” says Isabel Jeon, the team’s captain and a master’s student in kinesiology at Dal. 

“We really want to step it up, show everybody what we got and have that second chance to get a national medal.”

Last season, the Tigers were 10-1-1 in the 2025-26 regular season. Both the tie and loss came against a strong University of Prince Edward Island team that also handed them losses at both the Atlantic University Field Hockey League championship and the U Sports championship playoffs.

The Tigers have a mixed group of first-year and senior players this year, with three returning fifth-years, two exchange students and an experienced transfer student. 

Jeon says that this diversity has been instrumental in the team’s development and that the new players bring exciting energy.

“Representing your university at a national-level tournament is really exciting,” she says. “The rest of the team could probably feed off their drive, their hunger and their excitement.”

Addison Tillich, a first-year management student, says the team has developed chemistry over the season.

“The team dynamic and culture of this group is truly amazing,” she says. “Every day I’m always excited to come to practice. I feel like it’s such a great environment, and I feel like team culture is the key to team success.”

The team also introduced a new pre-season training packet designed to help skill and fitness development and look towards giving the team a more competitive edge throughout the new season.

“They’re pretty intrinsically motivated,” says Dempsey. “Everybody here wants to be here, and they want to win.”