Coach Cellucci Media Day Transcript

IOWA FIELD HOCKEY MEDIA DAY/PRESEASON AVAILABILITY

IOWA CITY, Iowa -- University of Iowa field hockey head coach Lisa Cellucci addressed the media before the 2026 season on Thursday.

Q. In the goalkeeper area, you have Abby, who comes to you from New Hampshire. What has it been like having her with the team?  Is she kind of who you're looking at to be the starting goalkeeper?

COACH: Yeah, it's been great. First of all, she was the starting goalkeeper at UNH. She won one of the championships there, played in the NCAA tournament. One of her first games in her career was here at Iowa her freshman year. So she actually, yesterday after practice, said to me, ‘I can't believe I'm actually playing here’. Well, yeah, we're really glad you're here.

She's been great. She has awesome size. She understands the game really well. Right now she's the leader in the race. But we do have a lot of competition, obviously, with the goalkeepers, and having four is a bit unusual. But we have a great newcomer from the Netherlands, Julia Claessens, who's here, and she adds a completely different look. So every day there is a lot of competition. But Abby had the advantage of coming in in the spring and being able to get a lot of experience with the team. So she's been doing a great job.

Q. How does that experience of starting at New Hampshire and winning a conference championship -- how does that help her confidence as she steps into a program like yours?

COACH: I think she knows she's done it before at a different level. But she's played against so many different teams in college field hockey, and some really big ones. I think her confidence coming in was very high as far as, ‘I know what I'm doing in goal’. It was more, I have to adjust to the level of play at Iowa, which is a powerhouse. We have a lineage of fantastic goalkeepers. So initially we had to be like, don't worry about any of that. Just be who you are. And be unapologetic about what you offer. That's kind of where we are right now. But she's been a great addition.

Q. You need to replace some pieces on the back line -- players like Milly and Mia who were obviously leaders as well. What's it been like in terms of finding someone who can fill those roles?

COACH: For sure. Well, I'll tell you, immediately -- all of college athletics is blowing up. I was like, When did they graduate high school? I texted both of them -- oh my -- 2021. But yeah, I mean, Milly and Mia were just such anchors in that defense. And just more than that, they gave so much to this team just from preparation, their steadiness, their poise.

But we do have a lot of depth, which is what I'm really excited about with this team, probably more so than we've had since 2021, which was a fantastic year. The competition is crazy right now for positions. It's also probably going to be incredibly challenging as we go through, because everybody in this room deserves to play and they could play at any program in the country. So the coaches are loving it right now, but we have a lot of decisions to make.

And the backfield is really where we have a lot of rotation happening right now to really find the best personnel and truly how we're going to play, if we're going to play with four in the back or three in the back. So tomorrow at our scrimmage, we're going to have a lot of different looks and a lot of different options. But I think we have the people in the room. We just have to get a little more experience.

Q. Is there a name or two on that back line that you see stepping up?

COACH: Yeah, Tea. She's been starting as center back. She's done a really good job. We're going to potentially have some midfielders play in the backfield. So obviously you may see Gia Whalen, if you play four in the back, it's like you're really attacking outside right or outside left, which will be really great. Peyton Shellaway also played in the backfield last year and she's done a really good job. Lauren DeRose, as well. So they've all been adding depth and then some. We're just really trying to find who plays best together and what system we run at the end -- four in the back or not.