The fall high school sports season is less than one month away. From the field to the court to the cross-country course, Greater Cincinnati high school students have begun practice in pursuit of a state championship.

When it comes to field hockey, eight schools in the Southwest Ohio Field Hockey League, which includes Dayton-area school Oakwood, will hope to win the region and advance to the state tournament in Columbus. Mount Notre Dame has been the team to beat recently. Could a new team be crowned the regional champion in 2023?

Here are the top Southwest Ohio field hockey players to watch, as well as a few storylines to follow.

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Laila Blumer, Oakwood

The senior goalkeeper tallied 104 saves and five shutouts in 2022, helping the Lumberjacks make the Southwest regional final. She was named to the all-league second team and is verbally committed to play at Division III Meredith College in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Olivia Ellerman, Summit Country Day

The senior was an instrumental part of the Silver Knights in 2022 and will play the same key role this year. She had 15 defensive saves last fall, the most for any Silver Knights field player.

Laura Fagan, Mount Notre Dame

The junior led the Girls Greater Catholic League with nine assists in 2022. She also had nine goals to give her 27 points on the season. Fagan was one of four Cougars to make the GGCL first team.

Rachel France, Mount Notre Dame

Last season, she scored five goals, assisted on one, and had two defensive saves to help the Cougars to their third state semifinal in four years. She was a first-team All-GGCL selection.

Glady Hill, Summit Country Day

The junior goalkeeper had 115 saves and was named to the SWOFL second team. The Silver Knights will have four team captains this year. Hill is the only junior in that group.

Abigail Hyatt, Oakwood

She scored 17 goals and assisted on three more as a freshman for the Lumberjacks. Hyatt also achieved first-team all-league honors, a sign that the future of Oakwood field hockey is in good hands.

Morgan Ott, Oakwood

The senior tied the school record with 12 defensive saves in a single season in 2022 and was named an all-league honorable mention.

Kate Sullivan, St. Ursula

The senior scored five goals and had three assists as the Bulldogs advanced to the regional semifinals. A second-team all-conference member in 2022, she is the only returning player for St. Ursula that was named to an All-GGCL team.

Julia Ward, Ursuline Academy

The junior led the GGCL last fall with 18 goals and 43 points. She also recorded seven assists and two defensive saves to be named to the All-GGCL first team.

Natalie Ward, Ursuline Academy

The senior goalkeeper was second in the GGCL in 2022 with 119 saves. Ward has been a first-team All-GGCL selection each of the past two seasons.

Four storylines to follow

Will Mount Notre Dame's GGCL streak continue?

The Cougars are going for their fifth straight GGCL title, with a 12-1-1 league record since the streak began in 2019. MND has appeared in six state semifinals since 2013, cementing their place as one of the top teams in Southwest Ohio in the last decade.

This season, the Cougars will face St. Ursula and Ursuline twice apiece. Other schedule highlights include home games against Oakwood, Fairmont, Hawken and Worthington Kilbourne. They also go on the road to face 2022 state finalist Bishop Watterson, whom the Cougars lost to in last year's state semifinal.

Summit Country Day looks to bounce back

The Silver Knights won their first playoff game in over a decade in 2021 when they beat St. Ursula 3-2. After going 4-11-1 in 2022 and bowing out in the first round of the district tournament, SCD returns an experienced core this season in Ellerman, Hill, Vivi Bohmer and Abby Replogle. Head coach Emily Betz is in her seventh season and is building the Silver Knights into a perennial contender in the region.

Unfortunate news out of Talawanda

After a 2-22-1 combined record in the past two seasons, Talawanda will no longer field an OHSAA-sanctioned field hockey program. According to former head coach Janet Holmes, Talawanda will continue to compete as a club team against fellow SWOFL opponents.

Can a Southwest team win the state championship?

It's a piece of history that is brought up fairly often when discussing Ohio field hockey.

St. Ursula is the only team to win the season's final game when they did so in 2010. The Bulldogs are also the most recent Southwest team to make the final. Since the Bulldogs' victory, 11 of 12 state championships have been won by Columbus-area schools. Thomas Worthington has won five trophies, Gahanna Columbus Academy has four titles, and Bishop Watterson won it all in 2020 and 2021.

Since the Ohio high school field hockey tournament began in 1979, Indian Hill (2000) and Mount Notre Dame (2004) are the only other Southwest schools to appear in a state final.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: OHSAA field hockey: Cincinnati's top players to watch in 2023