Field Hockey
By Mary Jane Souder
They were teammates almost as long as they can remember and friends just as long.
Except, of course, for that brief stretch in middle school when two of them – Eve Damsker and Kendra Pitts – played for Lenape and the other – Aida Ierubino – played for Unami. When they were in eighth grade, their two teams squared off for the winner-take-all championship, and it was Ierubino scoring the game-winner in a 1-0 Unami win
“I never forgot it – Aida had an amazing reverse shot,” Damsker said.
It marked the last time they would be on opposing teams.
“They were obviously upset (about the loss), but I think they were more excited to finally be able to play together,” Ierubino said. “We knew those were the top two middle schools, and it was going to be so awesome to finally be together and play in high school.”
When they joined forces, they did not disappoint.
Championships become something of a common occurrence for the threesome, who were the catalysts in three straight SOL Colonial Division titles. Last fall, they helped lead their Central Bucks West field hockey team to historic heights, capping a remarkable postseason run by advancing to the PIAA 3A state title game against Emmaus. The Bucks twice led against the perennial powerhouse but fell 3-2 to the 16-time state champion Green Hornets.
Putting the Bucks’ accomplishments in perspective – they were the first SOL team to advance to the state title game since 2002 when Central Bucks East captured the state crown. This year’s West squad is only the fourth team from District 1 to even play for a state crown since East’s state title run. Three (Conestoga, Downingtown West and Mount St. Joseph) have won it, but in the last 23 years, that distinction has regularly belonged to Emmaus out of District 11 and an assortment of District 3 teams.
“That’s remarkable,” coach Ierubino said. “Even hearing 2002, I’m like – ‘Oh, that wasn’t that long ago,’ but it was 23 years.”
If anyone knows how difficult it is to reach – and win – the state title game, it is the Bucks’ coach, who played a starring role on Council Rock’s 1994 state championship field hockey squad.
“You don’t realize as a kid going through it, but I have that perspective now as an athlete doing it and then as a coach doing it,” Ierubino said. “As a coach, I appreciate more how remarkable it is. It was a competitive year, and it was a well-fought final – 3-2 in a state final is a great game.”
For the first time since their middle school days, the three senior captains have gone their separate ways. Ierubino is in the starting lineup for national powerhouse University of Maryland (and scored in her first two games), Pitts is continuing her hockey career at Vassar College, and Damsker – who is enrolled at the University of North Carolina – is doing a semester abroad in Ireland where she hopes to play club hockey.
Difference makers from the start: For all three, it was quite a journey. All three were in the starting lineup as freshmen, and all three made an immediate impact on a team that – the preceding year – had finished 6-10 in SOL Colonial Division, fifth out of six teams in the division.
How big was their impact?
The Bucks were 14-2-1 in league play their freshman year, just two points and a win (instead of their 1-1 tie against Neshaminy in their final game) away from sharing the Colonial Division crown with Souderton.
“Coming into our first year, we knew West didn’t have the strongest past,” Aida Ierubino said. “We knew they didn’t really have a winning record, but we came in just excited to play.
“I knew Kendra and Eve – we’d all been playing together on club, and we were excited just to be on the high school level. We knew the older girls, and everyone clicked instantly – the seniors with the freshmen.”
Fast forward to 2025.
The Bucks – led by their senior tri-captains – had a perfect 10-0 SOL Colonial Division season, outscoring their division opponents 49-7 in those 10 wins.
“Building off our freshman year – we still had things to work on, and since we’d been working together the past four years, we gained a connection on and off the field,” Damsker said. “We’re all really close off the field, and I think that translated into our play. We also connected with the other girls, and we had a really good team dynamic.”
According to their coach, the trio took the lessons they learned from the upperclassmen and applied them to their own high school experience.
“They were freshman starters, and they got that experience of being included with the upperclassmen,” coach Ierubino said. “Grades didn’t matter – you had to be a contributing, impact player, no matter what grade you were in.
“So, when they were seniors, they don’t see their teammates as freshmen – they were part of the team.”
A preview of things to come: Last fall, the Bucks erased memories of their seventh place finish in districts the preceding year (when they earned the final state berth) by advancing to the district championship game where they extended top-seeded Villa Maria Academy to the limit before falling 3-2.
“I was just so proud of our team,” Damsker said. “We went really hard the whole game. The outcome wasn’t what we wanted, but I still felt good about it.”
As a result of their district runner-up finish, the Bucks avoided a date with perennial powerhouse Emmaus until the state title game, which is exactly where the two teams met. En route to the state title game, the Bucks notched heart-stopping wins over perennial state power Lower Dauphin (4-3 OT), and District 3 champion Penn Manor (3-2).
Although they came up just short against Emmaus, they could have just as easily won.
“Emmaus has had a history of doing it, and I didn’t know if my girls would buckle under the pressure and the fanfare of being in the state final, but they didn’t,” coach Ierubino said. “It was just an incredible season, and beyond that, being able to coach Aida and doing this with her and my younger girls being ball people and coming on the bus with us – it was definitely memories I’ll carry forever and something I’m so proud of for the girls.
“I was proud to be their coach, but they did the work, and they all came together, and they had a shared dream. Our motto for the year – the seniors got to pick one, and they picked ‘One team, one dream.’ They self-fulfilled that. We fell short obviously, but they got there. It was a four-year process for those seniors, and to see them be able to accomplish something they set their minds to is something that means a lot to me.”
The Ierubino connection: Aida Ierubino was destined to become a field hockey player. After all, her mother – and coach – was a two-time All-American during a stellar career at the University of Virginia and was named ACC Field Hockey Player of the Year in 1998. She also was a member of the U.S. Women’s National team.
“Honestly, I feel like in the moment I didn’t cherish it enough,” Aida said of playing for her mother. “Looking back at it now, it was such a cool opportunity to get coached by my mom. She knows what she’s talking about. She played at a really high level, and everything I have achieved and accomplished is all because of her, and I can’t thank her enough for that.”
Aida’s list of accomplishments is a lengthy one, and the two-time SOL Colonial Division Player of the Year’s resume in high school included two-time first team All-American recognition and four-time first team all-state honors. She was a member of the 2025 and 2026 USA U18 Women’s National team after initially playing for the 2024 USA U16 Women’s National team.
Not a bad outcome for someone who wasn’t especially fond of sports as a youngster.
“I hated sports,” Aida said with a laugh. “I literally would cry on the field because I didn’t want to go. You would never think that I would ever be playing in college if you saw me as a youngster.”
Aida outgrew her immense dislike of sports when – in third grade – she began playing club field hockey and developed a passion for the sport.
“Aida was very coachable,” coach Ierubino said. “I guess my biggest reservation when you coach your own kid – is it going to look like their accolades or their success – you’re giving it to them.”
From the outset, it was obvious Aida was a special talent. She was a lethal weapon on offense, creating magic with the ball on her stick. She closed out a remarkable career with 122 goals – 51 during a magical senior season.
Her mother had a front row seat as her coach.
“It was nice,” Lori said. “We would drive to games together, and looking at this season and not having her there – I sort of forgot how fortunate I was that we got to do it together and have such a successful season.
“That was the icing on the cake to go through not only coaching her and watching her develop as a player but also achieving such success on the team level in addition to that individual success.”
The fact that the trio led the Bucks to lofty heights was hardly a surprise.
“We played club together, so I’ve honestly grown up around the sport with them, and we just became good friends,” Aida said. “Freshman year, we were kind of thrown into that varsity position, and we became really close and it stuck all throughout high school.”
Aida admits it didn’t really hit her that the loss to Emmaus was her final game with her two close friends.
“At the banquet – I feel like that’s when it really hit me, and it was super sad, but I know Kendra’s going to do great things at Vassar where she’s going to do great academically and athletically,” Aida said. “And Eve is going off to study abroad in Ireland and then study at UNC, so I know there are huge and great things coming for all three of us. I got to see them all again at prom, and then I saw them a bunch over the summer at field hockey things for West.”
Ierubino enrolled at Maryland in January and returned May 12, just in time for senior prom three days later.
“They (Damsker and Pitts) were two of the first people I saw, which was awesome,” Aida said. “The only thing I would change – I just wish we had won the state championship, but I think it goes to show how much West has improved and how well our program has aged over the years.
“I can’t wait to see how they do this year, but I honestly don’t regret a single thing from my senior season at all, and I think the other girls would say they don’t either.”
Pitts a rock in goal: Pitts was the Bucks’ last line of defense in goal, twice earning all-state and all-league recognition. She was named all-region as a senior and is equally gifted in the classroom and was the salutatorian of West’s Class of 2026.
The Vassar freshman was a member of the National Honors Society, the French Honors Society and takes pride in her involvement in West’s Mock Trial Club.
“That was really fun to help it grow,” Pitts said. “We didn’t compete my 10th grade year because we didn’t have enough people, but in junior and senior year, we made it to districts, and that was really exciting to see the growth.
“We ended up having two teams senior year, so that growth was really nice to see.”
Pitts was also a key piece of the growth of West’s field hockey program and began playing club as part of FSC when she was in fourth or fifth grade.
“I was relatively late to start, and I was not initially on the top team,” she said. “My first year was a year of growth, and I was not the strongest to start out with. One of the things I think club and FSC gave me really effectively was a lot of opportunities. Coach Kelly (Broadway) is a great goalie coach, so I had a ton of great instruction under her.
“Most years I was playing on two teams and often playing up, so I had a good opportunity to play against some really strong players and, oftentimes, we played against really good teams. I’d get a lot of shots in games, and I was able to make a lot of progress really quickly because I had so much exposure.”
Pitts credits her quick reflexes in goal to the fact that she took dance lessons for more than a decade, beginning when she was three or four years old and continuing until ninth grade when dance competitions interfered with indoor field hockey. Ballet, she said, was her strongest dance style, but she kept up with jazz and contemporary and some musical theater.
“(Dance) made me very aware of everything my body was doing,” she said. “So now when I am playing, if I kick one way and the ball goes one way, I’m like ‘That was different because I did a special thing different.’ I can tell exactly what muscle was affected.
“The other thing that was really helpful was – with dance, you have to be very quick to correct, so if a dance teacher gives you a correction, then you have to make it the next time you run through, so if a coach gives me a correction, immediately the next rep, I am pretty much stepping into that.”
Pitts’ friendship with Ierubino and Damsker began in their middle school playing days.
“I was a relatively aggressive goalie, especially early on, and in that (middle school championship) game, I did do a slide tack on Aida and I did trip her,” Pitts said. “It was just fun to laugh with her about that and other things like that.
“Our bond was important because it means we also play on the field really well together because we get along. I was talking to Eve a lot more (on defense) because Aida’s usually higher up on the field., but Eve trusted me and knew that if I was telling her to go somewhere to mark someone she’ll do that because she knows I have a better angle.
“I remember one of our ninth grade games when we went back to club, and Ava sent a nice pass up to where Ever would usually have been, but Eve wasn’t playing at that moment. I was like, ‘Oh, in high school, that would have worked out great, but not here because Eve wasn’t there.’”
Pitts put the trio’s parting of way into perspective.
“I think it made it easier knowing how much of a change we effected at West,” Pitts said. “Knowing how many people were impacted by our success and made to love field hockey and enjoyed the success and the potential for success.”
At Vassar, Pitts will major in art history and chemistry and aspires to work in art conservation.
“I would love to work at a museum restoring their paintings and making sure they’re stored well,” Pitts said.
Damsker taking flight at UNC: Damsker grew up in family that bleeds North Carolina blue. Her father attended UNC and her sister (Name) is a student there and serves as president of the school’s field hockey club team. Her mother, a doctor, completed her residency at UNC.
“UNC has been my dream school,” she said. “I was born in Chapel Hill, I’ve been to so many basketball games there, and it’s always been a huge part of my life. I feel a strong connection there. I always have – it’s always been there in my heart.
Despite her ties to UNC, Damsker acknowledged that it was not an easy decision when it came time to choose between playing collegiate field hockey and UNC.
“I do love field hockey so much, but I realized I can still attend my dream school and still keep playing and also get the academic piece,” she said.
Damsker is majoring in biology in the pre-med route, following in the footsteps of her mother.
“She’s in dermatology, and I’m also thinking of that because I was one of her medical assistants, and it’s helped me see the different kinds of dermatology patients and what problems they have,” she said. “I already know so much.”
As for field hockey, it was initially Damsker’s secondary sport behind basketball. Until, that is, she joined forces with Ierubino and Pitts at FSC where the foundation was laid for something special
“We all just trust each other so much just from playing in fifth grade,” Damsker said. “We all just knew each other and how we played. I knew how good Aida was when we were playing her at Lenape – we knew we had to lock her down. I also knew Kendra was an amazing goalie.”
Being part of that unique trio with Ierubino and Pitts was a significant piece of her high school experience.
“Not many people have that kind of bond,” Damsker said. “Especially being the three senior captains – we all just honestly evolved together. We all just navigated our field hockey careers together. It was just amazing.”
An amazing friendship that won’t be ending anytime soon.
“Obviously just watching Kendra and Aida on (live stream) doing their college field hockey – I am still going to keep up with them,” she said.
As for her West playing days, Damsker leaves with the fondest of memories.
“I’m so grateful to have that experience,” she said. “I’m so happy we went that far especially my last season. We ended on the strongest thing you can do besides winning a state championship.
“It was such a surreal experience, and I’m so glad that all my teammates did it with me. I’m so grateful to them and thankful for what we’ve built
A spot in history: The record will show that – during the four-year varsity careers of Ierubino, Damsker and Pitts – the Bucks won close to 80 games (78 to be exact), they captured three straight league division titles, and they made four straight trips to the state tournament, advancing to the state semifinals as juniors and the final as seniors.
“These three seniors were very, very special – there’s no question about it,” coach Ierubino said. “My first year with West we fell short of just making (district) playoffs, and last fall, we were runners-up in the state.
“That’s a pretty quick turnaround, and it’s a testament to the team’s work as individuals. A lot of them play club in the offseason and then being able to blend that together and work together and play in positions they’re not used to but where the team needs them and selflessly doing that is why we were successful. I just think it’s a great story and it’s a great finish.”
For the veteran coach, it was a special journey for both herself and the three senior captains.
“Watching them evolve from the being U10s to then seniors in high school – they’re all such different people, but that’s what I loved about sport as a player,” she said. “The people you meet that you may not have been friends with because you’re so different if you didn’t have a sport uniting you and working together and achieving together and struggling together and watching them just really care about each other – that is ultimately what they’re going to take with them.
“Watching them grow and support each other on and off the field and truly care about each other was very special, and I loved every minute of it.”