Julianna Tietjen, Abby Roslund lead Northport field hockey to Long Island Class A title
Julianna Tietjen of Northport proudly holds the Long Island championship plaque along with her teammates after they defeated Massapequa 2-0 during the Long Island Class A field hockey championship on Tuesday in Garden City. Credit: Dawn McCormick
The Northport field hockey team last earned a Long Island Class A title in 2023, and Julianna Tietjen has been thinking about it ever since.
In the Tigers’ first championship appearance since then, it was Tietjen who led her team to a 2-0 victory over Massapequa on Tuesday at Adelphi.
“The last time we were here, I was a freshman and it’s definitely been a goal of mine to come back here,” Tietjen said. “What better way to do it in my senior year coming back here and winning a Long Island championship. I’m right back where I started and that’s what I wanted to do: Bring it home to Northport.”
Northport (19-1) will next visit the winner of Mamaroneck (Section I)/Kingston (Section IX) in the Class A regional final on Sunday. Massapequa finished 11-6.
With five minutes left in the first quarter, Northport earned a penalty corner while a player up. Grace Fischer drove in a ball from the top of the circle and Tietjen collected it at the stroke line, where she spun and drilled it into the right corner, giving the Tigers their first lead.
Coach Samantha Little said without Tietjen’s leadership, Northport might not be in this position.
“She has worked so incredibly hard to get here and to push her team to get here,” Little said. “I think that motivation from her, as a captain, helps everyone to push through, dig deep and today it got the job done.”
For almost the remainder of the game, it was a battle on both sides of the ball. Massapequa found a few opportunities, but Northport's defense proved stifling. Then, in the final three minutes, the Tigers found their insurance.
On a penalty corner, Katie Beisler sent the ball to Abby Roslund on the right side of the circle, where she dribbled past a defender and found the cage.
“After [Tietjen’s] goal, we were all super motivated to do it again,” Roslund said. “We started to connect our passes really nicely and it was great field hockey. I’m so proud of everyone. I can tell everyone on the field worked so hard and wanted this.”
Regardless of Northport’s next opponent, Tietjen said the mindset is the same: Leave it all out there.
“We just want to play for one another,” Tietjen said. “We never know when we might be playing our last game in the playoffs, so we don’t want to have any regrets. We never want to be going home thinking, ‘What if?’ We just want to leave it all out there, play together and have fun.”
Tess Ferguson is a reporter on Newsday's high school sports staff. She joined the team after graduating with a journalism degree from Ithaca College in 2025.
