Groton — Last year, Olivia Monte was a member of the Stonington junior varsity field hockey team, getting into a few varsity games as the Bears wound their way to the Class S state tournament semifinals behind a pair of all-state selections in Miranda Arruda and Colette Dreher.

Now Monte is the Bears' starting right wing. She is capable, if inexperienced, just one example of Stonington's rebuilding process this season as it tries to win an 11th straight Eastern Connecticut Conference title, what has become a built-in expectation around coach Jenna Tucchio's program.

"They're great players (who graduated) and there's some big shoes to fill," said Monte, a junior. "We're just trying to build our name. There's a lot of pressure on us.

"The first day of practice, I was coming in unsure of myself. When you're an underclassman it's hard just to prove yourself. (Practice was) vigorous. You just kind of push through."

Stonington beat Fitch 2-1 Tuesday in an ECC matchup, getting goals just before halftime from Ellie Korinek assisted by Monte and Teagan O'Brien assisted by Hannah Nulick.

Tucchio, who has certainly faced the rebuilding process before in her successful 17 years at Stonington, doesn't remember anything quite like this season, when not one starter returns to the same position from a year ago.

Tucchio found herself repeating words and phrases over and over again Tuesday, when the Bears upped their record to 2-1 overall, 2-0 in the league. But she also found herself with the realization that her players were enveloped by a sense of nervousness, afraid to lose an ECC contest, when all she really would like them to do at this point is keep improving.

"I see the fear in their faces. I can see by the way they're playing," Tucchio said. "There's not anyone out there that's going to win every game. These are just high school kids. We have 18 freshmen. We're just trying to get better every day.

"We just need to be a better field hockey team."

Several of the Stonington team members went to field hockey camp at UConn this summer. They learned from that. Now they're learning further from playing Stonington's competitive schedule, including a 5-0 loss Saturday to defending Class M champion Guilford.

The Bears will meet East Lyme, who tied Stonington for the ECC tournament title a year ago, in games on Oct. 3 and Oct. 31.

"So much," said Tucchio, asked if Stonington was able to learn from the loss to Guilford. "They're so organized. They're executing things I would like to execute by the end of the season. They attack as a unit. They defend as a unit. They were faster than us. We had to figure out, 'What kind of adjustments do we have to make to keep them in front of us?'

"The more we play, they'll get better."

Fitch (1-3, 0-2) had the bulk of the chances early, putting together several penalty corners, including three in a row, before Stonington took their first.

But it was Stonington that converted a pair of corners headed into the half. With 4 minutes, 54 seconds before halftime, Sophia Fernholz fired a shot into the circle that was redirected by Monte, giving Korinek a clear shot at the goal.

O'Brien's goal to make it 2-0 came just 25 seconds before halftime.

Fitch scored the only second-half goal with 1:15 to play, getting the first career varsity goal from freshman Ashleigh Holmes, who received her varsity uniform just before the game. Bridget O'leary had the assist.

Fitch outshot Stonington 10-6. Stonington goalie Claire Evans made nine saves and Fitch's Hailie Kesterson made three. Each team finished with 10 corners.

"We had a lot of chances. We just didn't finish," said Fitch coach Diane Kolnaski, who along with her husband/assistant coach Ed were expecting their first grandchild to be born Tuesday if not in the near future.

"These kids, this is one of the best teams I've had. They know their roles better, they played their positions better and played together better. We've played games against Stonington when they've had nine corners, 10 corners in the first half; they just pounded on us. I told the kids 'youre parents saw a great game where you showed your versatility. They saw a lot of great skills.'

" We just need to put everything together at the most important point."

v.fulkerson@theday.com