这周末体育部的一项热门活动与篮球队或足球队无关。在印第安纳大学最后一支校队曲棍球队出场将近20年后，这项运动将于周六下午1点在梅伦坎普馆(Mellencamp Pavilion)迎战滑岩队(Slippery Rock)。“我还没想过周六我会参加一级联赛的比赛，”大四学生塔妮娅·霍尔特说。“看起来不像真的。”与许多学生和社区成员可能认为的相反，曲棍球对印第安纳大学并不新鲜。曲棍球在1982年被终止之前，是一项有10年历史的大学运动。IU在10个赛季中取得了119胜74负15负的战绩。凯·伯鲁斯(Kay Burrus)是健康、体育和娱乐学院(School of Health, sports Education and Recreation)的副院长，曾在1972-76年间担任曲棍球教练。他说，曲棍球的回归“对哈佛大学来说是件好事”。尽管IU确实有曲棍球的历史，但是关于2000年的球队的一切都是新的。这支球队有18名球员，其中包括9名曾在美国职业棒球联盟(IU)俱乐部一起踢球的球员。教练艾米·罗伯逊招募了五名新生，并在校园里找到了另外三名感兴趣的球员，填补了花名册上的剩余位置。牛队本赛季的主场比赛将在梅伦坎普馆举行，2001年他们将搬到室外草皮球场。“麦伦坎的阿斯特罗草皮非常棒，”罗伯逊说。 "We don't have to worry about being rained out or sunburned, so I really like it. There's not a lot of space on the sidelines, so the officials won't be happy, but from a playing standpoint, it's a real favorable surface."\nDuring field hockey's first stint as a varsity sport, the Hoosiers played home games at Memorial Stadium and the former artificial surface football practice field located near Bill Armstrong Stadium. As a club sport the field hockey team played its games on the "tundra," a grass field located behind Foster Quad and some of the greek houses on North Jordan Avenue. \nRoberston is also new to IU. Robertson was named head coach on March 30 after serving as an assistant coach at Wake Forest the past three seasons. She helped the Demon Deacons post an 18-4 record and earn their first trip to the NCAA Tournament last season.\nRobertson has worked continuously since arriving at IU, doing everything from recruiting and scheduling to ordering equipment for the team.\n"I have definitely used every minute of the 24-hour day," Robertson said. "I think it's been a challenge, but it has been really fun because everyone is really eager to start a new program."\n Robertson squeezed eight practices in this spring with the existing players from the club team. The entire roster started practicing together Aug. 18 and during the two-week span some players said there has been noticeable improvement.\n "I think we're starting to click," sophomore Erica Nilsson said. "The first practice we had together you could tell we weren't playing well together, and people weren't sure of each other."\nRobertson said her philosophy is for the team to not get ahead of itself and focus on each practice individually. So far, the team has stuck to those principles.\n"When we get to practice we leave everything behind us," Hults said.\nIU's opening-game opponent is just as mysterious as the Hoosiers themselves. Slippery Rock is a Division II school in Pennsylvania located about a hour north of Pittsburgh.\n"We're open-minded to playing a very tough game, and if it's not a tough game we just want to slam it down their throats," Hults said. \n Nilsson expects the Hoosiers will be flowing with adrenaline Saturday.\n"It's going to be the hardest we play in our lives," she said. "We are going to go after the ball with 110 percent effort. We are going to be so excited." \nWhen Saturday finally arrives, Hults, who has been pushing for a varsity team since her freshman year, said, "I'm just not going to stop smiling."\nAnd so will 17 of her teammates.
