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Ali Johnstone takes the offensive against the University of Louisville in a match the Bobcats won 3-2 in overtime at Peggy Pruitt Field. Photo by Scott Gardner From the time she joined Ohio University's field hockey team as assistant coach in 1997, Shelly Morris saw a promising future. "I recognized the team was a lot of people eager for learning new things and wanting to be better," says Morris, who just finished her third season as head coach. The team proved her right. In Morris' first year at the helm, the squad celebrated its first winning season in six years. A year later, the team took a second-place finish in the Mid-American Conference regular season and was the tournament runner-up. The steady improvement culminated this year with the team snagging the MAC title, its first-ever NCAA appearance and individual honors for outstanding players. This year's 16-5 overall and 9-1 conference record earned the team a 13th-place finish in the NCAA rankings, and the National Field Hockey Coaches' Association poll placed the Bobcats ninth in the nation. It had been 20 years since the team had won a regular-season championship. In fact, alumni from that 1981 team were invited back to a game in October to be presented with championship rings to supplement the marble paperweights they originally received. "They were really rowdy during the game in the stands, and my players were giving it right back to them,"Morris says. "Almost every different place we went to this year we had some alumni there to support us." The praise was well-deserved, considering the sacrifices players have made over the past several years. For example, Ohio often visited teams that played on artificial turf, resulting in a faster game that required more strength and finesse than they needed at home. To prepare, team members left at 6 every morning to travel to a turf field at a Parkersburg, W.Va., high school for a 7 to 9 a.m. practice. "I think that was a huge sacrifice for those kids to get up that early and make that commitment," Morris says. By the time Ohio got its own turf field in October 1999, the players were up for the challenge. Morris also had raised expectations for the team by scheduling matches against the likes of Michigan, Iowa, Boston College and Virginia. She's proud, she says, that individual players also received recognition for their performances. Six -- Ali Johnstone, Lauren Mazziotto, Brea Webster, Elizabeth Holtzman, Andrea Voros and Tara Elliott -- were all-conference selections, and Johnstone, who was MAC Player of the Year, and Mazziotto were All-Americans. Meanwhile, Morris, who was named West Region Coach of the Year by the National Field Hockey Coaches Association, is already looking forward to next season. "I think we have a lot of talent," she says. "We're losing some really strong leaders (to graduation), and it will be interesting to see who comes out of their shell when those leaders aren't around." Even when the team lost the NCAA tournament game 2-1 to Wake Forest, Morris was upbeat. "I told them, 'We just lost in the first round, but this was a great experience to be here. Just remember how it feels to be here, and we can find the path back.'" Joan Slattery Wall