By Scot Souza, Daily News Tribune

WALTHAM — In many ways, it was a dream job for Jessica King. In others, it might have been the hardest one she's ever taken.

The 1997 alumna returned to Bentley University this fall as her alma mater's new field hockey coach. As a two-time All-America, coming off a nine-year run at the helm of a Lasell College program she built from nothing, King was a logical choice for the vacant Falcon post. Only this new venture would be a lot different than her last. When you go 2-27 in the first two years coaching a new varsity team, nobody gives it a second thought. When you take over a program with eight NCAA appearances in the last nine years - including a Division II national championship in 2001 - the stakes are a little higher. Sitting at 1-5 two weeks into the season, it's safe to say King's homecoming wasn't feeling quite so comfortable.

``Most of the players were the same. What was the X factor?'' she recalled, ``that would be the coach.

``It was a tough first two weeks. Going 1-5 wasn't easy.''

If it wasn't easy on the new coach, it wasn't familiar with returning players coming off a NCAA semifinals appearance last year and NCAA title game run two years ago under longtime coach Kelly McGowan.

``It wasn't what we were used to,'' said three-year starting goaltender and returning All-America Alyssa Sliney. ``We had a lot of changes coming in and we didn't start off the way we expected to. We just didn't really know what to expect.''

King said she never started to view it as a lost season, and instead wanted her team to focus on winning the next game, confident that winning would soon become contagious. The Falcons did that Sept. 16 vs. Franklin Pierce, then did it again in the game after that. Then again, and again, again. Sixteen times in a row, Bentley took the field and emerged victorious.

On Friday, the team that lost five of its first six games will be looking to make it 17 straight triumphs in the NCAA Division II semifinals at Bloomsburg, Penn.

``I never thought it would be a transition year,'' King determined. ``I knew that we'd compete for the NE-10 (title), unless injuries or something prevented us from doing that. But I didn't think we'd win 16 in a row either.''

The coach said she first sensed the turnaround during a Sept. 18 game against Southern Connecticut State when one of her players was carded and the team held on for a victory despite being a player down for a long stretch of the second half.

``That was huge,'' she said. ``They just fought all the way to the end that game.

``They always had the fight. They just were waiting for it to click. I knew once we got a couple (of victories) under our belt, they'd really start to buy into it. I'm new, so they were probably looking at me wondering `what are we doing?'''

``I told them just to stick with it and they did to their credit. They just believed in each other and it's starting to work now.''

Truth is, it's been working for a while. But it seemed to work better and better as the season progressed, culminating with Bentley's second victory of the year over UMass-Lowell - after losing a 3-0 game in the first meeting of the season - in overtime of the Northeast-10 championship game last week.

``We just kept pushing through it and eventually it turned around for us,'' Sliney said. ``I think the continuity moving up and down the field improved a lot and that really helped us start scoring goals.''

Juniors Nicole Murphy and Courtney Bartlett led the rejuvenated scoring attack with 11 goals apiece. Junior Abbie DeMusis paced the Falcons with five game-winning goals, while freshmen Stephanie Sideris (2 goals, 3 assists) and Tori Bergantino (goal), 2008 graduates of Watertown and Waltham High respectively, also lent a spark to the improved attack.

Sliney had a 0.95 goals against average this season, including 0.59 in the 16-game winning streak.

``When you're in it, you don't really realize how long that is,'' Sliney said of the streak. ``You think about it now and it's hard to try to remember how it was to lose earlier in the season. It pushes you a lot, I think, because you know you don't want to go through that again.''

King said the adjustments she made were mostly personnel shifts she thought would put her players in better position to succeed.

``Special teams, our corners, we changed them,'' she said. ``Really that's all it was - just changing people around - maybe five major changes.''

``We ended up going back to the team we had always been,''Sliney determined. ``That's how we got here.''

The Falcons received a bye into the NCAA semis and will face the winner of the UMass-Lowell/Southern Connecticut game on Friday at 5:30 p.m. The title game is Sunday at 1 p.m.

As the Falcons took to the Bentley football field for a practice late yesterday afternoon, King said it was time to put the 16-game streak behind them and focus on the two-game win steak they hope to have this weekend.

``Really, all we're thinking about is Friday,'' she said. ``We could win every game of the year, then lose Friday, and be disappointed.''

Sliney knows that feeling as well as anyone. She is one of 13 players on the squad who were on the squad for the national title game loss two years ago and the semifinal defeat last season. Whether it's in a fourth matchup of the year against UMass-Lowell or SCSU, or a game against one of the less-familiar Pennsylvania foes on Sunday, she said experience will help.

``We've been here before,'' she noted. ``It's just not letting it all get to you. We just remember that we've done it before, we can do it again.''