Athletics department funds $1.5 million facility

Following its most successful season in school history, the IU field hockey team will be rewarded with a "state of the art" outdoor facility set to open this fall.\nOn Feb. 3, the IU board of trustees approved a $1.5 million plan to build a field hockey field with a synthetic playing surface and an adjacent soccer practice field with a natural grass surface. The fields will be located between the IU outdoor swimming pool and St. Paul's Catholic Center.\nThe plan includes fencing, a scoreboard, safety nets and an irrigation and drainage system for the soccer field.\nThe athletics department will fund the project, but it has not announced when construction will begin, who will contract the field or what surface will be installed.\nField hockey coach Amy Robertson said the new facility will not just be beneficial to the players competing on it.\n"We are thrilled to see this project moving forward this year and we anticipate that this will help us greatly in attracting the nation's top recruits in field hockey," she said in a statement.\nReturning all-league selection junior Morgan Miller said she is excited about the new field.\n"Being a part of the first senior class to play in it will no doubt be an honor," Miller said. "The field will aid in the future success of IU field hockey."\nPlans for a new facility have been in the works for a while. IU Athletics Director Rick Greenspan announced at an Oct. 18 Bloomington Faculty Council meeting his intention to build a field hockey facility.\nThe team previously played home matches indoors in the nine-year-old John Mellencamp Pavilion.\nLast season, the team finished No. 9 nationally in the year-end rankings following its first ever NCAA tournament appearance. The team also captured four all-league selections including Kayla Bashore, Big Ten Player of the Year and first team All-American selection. \nGreenspan said he hopes the new facility will contribute to the team's success.\n"Our field hockey team has made considerable progress in its six-year history and this field should help its continued success," Greenspan said in a statement.\nConstruction recently finished on renovations to Bill Armstrong Stadium and Robert C. Haugh Track Circle of Champions, projects that also cost more than $1 million, according to the IU University Architects Office Web Site. \n-- Staff writer Allie Townsend contributed to this report.