Lehigh field hockey coach wraps up first season

As they aimed for their fourth straight win, the members of the Lehigh field hockey team ran off Ulrich Field at the end of the third quarter of their game against Sacred Heart in early September, just minutes after giving up a tying goal.

Approaching the team at their bench was Kelsi Lykens, the Patriot League’s youngest active head coach who was hired this past March. 

Lykens confronted her players, frustrated about how they let their opponents back within striking distance.

“She really demands a lot from us, but in a good way,” said first-year midfielder Ella Stephenson. “She wants us to bring a high level of energy and make sure we’re communicating well.” 

Less than two minutes into the fourth quarter, Stephenson recorded her first career assist as a revitalized Lehigh team scored three goals in a 5-2 win. 

In her first season as head coach, Lykens has used lessons from her career as a standout player, her parents’ love for coaching and her increasingly analytical mindset to find success in her current position.

Lykens was named a first-team Division II All-American twice by the National Field Hockey Coaches Association while playing at West Chester University, where she won two national championships and was conference player of the year in her senior season.

She knew throughout her life she wanted to coach.

Both of Lykens’ parents had field hockey coaching backgrounds, exposing her to coaching at a young age. They established a youth program in the Reading area that Lykens eventually played in.

“Seeing them coach really inspired my vision to be a collegiate coach,” Lykens said.

After short stints as an assistant coach at West Chester and Sacred Heart, she ascended to her first Division II head coaching position at the University of New Haven in 2017.

The catch? She had to start the team from scratch.

Kelsi Lykens, the Lehigh field hockey head coach, gives instructions to the team during a practice on Sep. 25 at Ulrich Field. Lykens was named Lehigh’s head field hockey coach on March 1. (Holly Fasching/B&W Staff)

While this was a challenge, she said she was inspired to undertake the task by her parents’ history of building a program from the ground up. The first step was to find players who would be willing to come to a program that was just starting.

“You’re selling a dream that you don’t know is going to come true,” Lykens said. “You have to have a very clear vision of what you want the team to look like in the future.”

The challenge for Lykens was heavily entrenched in sustaining a roster of players who were willing to ride out a difficult first few years. In her first season at New Haven, the team went 0-13, scoring only two goals and giving up 104.

The team slowly started to celebrate milestones over the coming years. They picked up their first win in October 2018 and a conference playoff appearance in 2021.

In 2022, New Haven took an 8-5 conference record to the conference semi-finals. In the regular season they defeated Assumption University, a team that was ranked seventh in Division II before the game.

At the same time that Lykens was building New Haven’s program, former Lehigh head coach Caitlin Dallmeyer was in a rebuilding phase of her own in Bethlehem. When she took over the team in 2016, Lehigh was coming off of 20 straight losing seasons.

Dallmeyer secured Lehigh’s first winning record in 25 years in 2021, won the title in 2022 and then resigned in January 2023 to pursue opportunities outside of coaching.

In 2022, Lehigh’s team saw their first Patriot League title in 30 years, and played in the NCAA tournament for the first time ever. 

“I had so much respect for Coach Dallmeyer,” Lykens said. “I knew her coaching, I knew her style and I knew what she was building here.”

When Lykens learned of the opening at Lehigh, she said she applied with the hope of having a job that would allow her to fulfill her dream of being a Division I head coach while also being close to her family in Reading.

On March 1, Lykens was officially named the new head coach of the Lehigh field hockey team. For this season, she had to temporarily move away from her fiance in Connecticut to get started with the team.

“We’re looking to make the move soon and purchase a home here,” Lykens said.

Once she arrived at Lehigh, she began to oversee a period of transition for the team. 

For incoming first-years like Stephenson, there was a sense of unpredictability when Lykens got hired.

“I was definitely very nervous because Coach Lykens didn’t recruit me and hadn’t really seen me play much,” Stephenson said. “But she was super welcoming once we got here.”

Maddie Kahn, ‘23, a goalie who won the Patriot League Goalkeeper of the Year award as a sophomore at Lehigh and made the league’s second team in 2022, transferred to the reigning national champion, the University of North Carolina, for a graduate year. 

Also transferring for a fifth year was Sarah Bonthuis, ‘23, who left Lehigh for Duke. Bonthuis left Lehigh in the top five in both career goals and career assists.

“I think losing those two really indicated to other coaches that those are assets we needed to refill,” Lykens said. “It makes sense but it really fired up all of our student-athletes.”

One player who has found success at the start of the 2023 season is senior forward Lotte Smorenburg, who surpassed her 2022 goalscoring total. Her five goals lead all Lehigh players.

To Smorenburg, one of Lykens’s strengths is her deep knowledge of the sport. She said Lykens has instituted a different press and has been able to make other tactical changes that have benefitted the team.

“We definitely made some adjustments compared to last year,” Smorenburg said. “She gave her own twist to our playing style, and I think it shows well on the field.”

Lykens said she spends hours before each game coming up with a “scout plan”, which she develops by delving into areas like statistics and film-watching.

Knowing that games will sometimes come down to one play, she believes scouting in advance and watching her opponent’s games allow the team to do more work during the week as opposed to making all the adjustments during the game.

One of the most satisfying things to Lykens is when the opposing team plays how her scouting report anticipates them to.

“I love when that happens,” Lykens said. “Although I do highly respect the coaches that switch it up or do something different.”