Indian Hill field hockey shut out St. Ursula Academy 2-0 on Wednesday, Oct. 14, at Tomahawk Stadium. The win lifted the Braves to 12-1 overall and a perfect 9-0 in Southwest Ohio Field Hockey League (SWOFHL) conference play.
It was Senior Night.
Junior Nella Grace Lewellen earned player-of-the-game honors for Indian Hill, according to MaxPreps. The Oct. 14 result marked the second time the Braves shut out the Bulldogs this season. Indian Hill beat St. Ursula 5-1 on Sept. 17 in the first meeting between the two SWOFHL opponents.
The victory extended a bounce-back stretch for first-year head coach Emily Betz's squad. Indian Hill's only loss came Oct. 3, a 2-5 defeat to DuPont Manual of Louisville. The Braves responded with three straight wins: 7-1 over Fairmont on Oct. 5, 2-1 in overtime against Mount Notre Dame on Oct. 6 and the Oct. 14 shutout of St. Ursula.
Lewellen, who scored the overtime winner against Mount Notre Dame, was nominated for the Cincinnati Enquirer's athlete of the week on Oct. 12. The Enquirer described her as a junior who helped Indian Hill finish undefeated in conference play.
Betz joined Indian Hill in 2026 after coaching at Summit Country Day, where she led the program to its first playoff appearance in more than a decade in 2019 and was named SWOFHL Coach of the Year three times, according to her coaching profile on the Indian Hill Braves athletics site. A Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, native, she played Division I field hockey at Davidson College and served as team captain her senior year.
On her profile page, Betz described what drives her coaching philosophy: "I became a coach because I wanted to teach high school athletes to be confident in themselves."
The Braves' 9-0 conference record earned them the top seed in the OHSAA field hockey regional tournament, the Columbus Dispatch reported. It is the first time since 2020 that Mount Notre Dame has not held the top regional seed in Southwest Ohio, according to the Dispatch. In 2020, Ursuline Academy held the top seed, but Indian Hill won the tournament.
Indian Hill has two regular-season games left. The Braves travel to Columbus Academy on Saturday, Oct. 17, at 11:30 a.m., then host Summit Country Day at Tomahawk Stadium on Tuesday, Oct. 20, at 7 p.m. Their first OHSAA postseason game is set for Tuesday, Oct. 27, against Ursuline Academy at Tomahawk Stadium at 7 p.m.
