Halloween Scrimmage

Every year we have a Halloween Scrimmage. It’s a practice where we all get to dress up and play in our costumes. Groups of us tend to pick themes and all dress up as characters from the same movie or tv show.
My group this year did Star Wars. We decided about a month ago what our theme was going to be and who was going to be what. Laura was going to be Yoda because she loves him, that’s a little bit of an understatement. Ellyn was going to be Jabba because she’s got the goalie pads to fluff her up a bit, Lauren was darth vader, Jill was R2D2 and I was Princess Leia. Jill made her costume out of a round cardboard box and looked hysterical. Watching her play was even funnier. She couldn’t see her feet or the ball for that matter. My costume was pretty simple to make, the hardest part was doing my hair. I ended up putting lofus in my hair to make poufy buns. Yup that’s right, shower lofus.
Another group of Fhocers did SpongeBob. Marguerite was Patrick and used her hair to make the fifth arm of the star. Rachel was SpongeBob. Her costume was also made out of cardboard. When she went against R2D2 it was the funniest thing ever. Both of them were reaching with their sticks but the majority of the time could only manage to kick the ball, if they touched it at all. Mary was Plankton and Caroline was Sandy.
The Rugrats also made an appearance at practice. Yes they were in diapers. Sam Karen Mel and Worm were all babies, and Krysten turned her goalie uniform into Reptar.
There were three M&Ms. Caitlin, Chelsea, and Katie were the yellow, blue, and red M&Ms.
Another group was an iPod commercial. Lena was dressed as an iPod, Megan and Grace were her two headphones. And Mary B was the crazy dancer from all the commercials.
Coach Jess definitely had the best costume of the day. She came into the locker room dressed as our very own Grace. Cornrows, mouth guard, #26 uniform and all. She played with us too.
All in all it was a great practice. Many of us could barely possess the ball but it was still a really fun day.
Now we are preparing for the upcoming weekend, Empire 8 Championships! Hope to see you all there.
Mallory

Stevens v. W&J

I have no voice… Successful weekend in Pittsburgh

On Friday afternoon we departed for our long away trip to Pittsburgh to play Washington and Jefferson for Saturday morning. The trip was really long particularly because there was loads of anticipation. Not only was this a huge conference game for us, but we also had a full weekend consisting of a visit to a scarehouse and dinner at the Spaghetti Warehouse.
Our long trip began with watching tons of fun movies on the bus ride including Charlie’s Angels, Zoolander, and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. I enjoy napping on the bus so I admit that I didn’t watch all of them!
When we finally arrived in Pittsburgh we went right to dinner. It was delicious! I got to sit at a table with my sister, Karen, and Mel. It was nice to sit down and have dinner with the seniors on the team (it doesn’t normally happen). We stuffed our faces but not too much because we wanted to be ready for the scarehouse.
The scarehouse we went to is one of the best in the country. We went there as a team the last time we were in Pittsburgh and it was absolutely terrifying! The link to the scarehouse is at http://www.scarehouse.com/ . I knew what was to come, but I will admit that I still screamed A LOT.
Saturday morning comes around and we are set to play W&J at 10am. The team was extremely pumped to play this game, because we’ve played W&J in the conference championship for the past two years AND they were undefeated in conference this year. The game proved to meet our expectations. It was an extremely competitive game. They scored first on us. Even though I hate getting scored on, I will admit that their goal was good. We answered right back in the first half with Mary Nikish scoring on a corner. The second half was played in both sides of the field. The excitement came at the end of the game. W&J got a corner against us with no time left in regulation. They took a shot that was deflected high and one of their players raised her stick and batted the ball into the goal. W&J stormed the field and began cheering. The official originally called it a goal to end the game but I immediately went up to her after she made the call to argue against it saying that it wasn’t legal. Luckily, the other official agreed with me and the goal was taken back… meaning we were now about to start overtime! W&J got corners against us but the defense played great so we were able to deny them the golden goal that would’ve ended the game. A few minutes later in the overtime, Caitlin “Cali” Chamberlain got a breakaway against the other team but was tripped from behind in the circle. Therefore, the official awarded us a penalty stroke. Mallory stepped up to take the stroke and scored! It was a beautiful stroke and ended the game! We were so excited, because it was a great game that could’ve gone either way but we were able to get it done.
I could not be more proud of our performance… I’m not even mad that I lost my voice this weekend! 

The Professional Blogger on the Team & Goalie,
Ellyn

FDU

Wednesday morning, the team woke up and prepared for our sixth game of the season against FDU. We went onto the field and went through our standard warm up. The game began and we played with everything we had. The ducks scored on a pretty corner but were unable to hold the lead with less than ten minutes left in the game. The game went into overtime, down to two minutes and ten seconds when the referees had to stop the game for lightning! The coaches got together and decided to finish the game on Thursday afternoon.


Thursday morning crept by slowly as our thoughts were focused on the game to come. So the excitement only built when we learned that they have to start the game exactly where they left off, in the first overtime period with 2:10 left on the clock. Almost as soon as the first whistle was blown to restart the game, the announcer said, “only one minute remains in the first overtime period.” After the ducks got their initial jitters out, we came out strong in the second overtime. Within the first seven minutes, Stevens scored on a perfect corner sending FDU back on the bus home with a defeat 2-1!!

- Sam

Ithaca

Conference games are always the most important games of the season. If we win enough conference games we will get to participate in the conference tournament, and winning that will take us to the NCAAs. The conference games are the only games that really count! Our first conferee opponent was Ithaca. It was definitely a great game. Both teams wanted to win so badly, and neither team ever gave up the fight to score.

At half time the score was still 0-0 but the Ducks clearly had the advantage in shots and corner opportunities. All we needed was to wear down the goalie and one would fall. The first tally of the game came on a corner. Grace inserted the ball to Karen who passed to me on her right. A defender quickly came in front of me. Without the opportunity to rip a shot, I did a little lift over her stick to send the ball towards the goal. But that ball didn't stop. It rolled in slow motion right past the goalie and into the cage. It wasn't a pretty goal by any means, but it was my first one of the season and it felt great. It was probably scored because of the bowling we did the night before. The team went bowling in the basement of Howe and I did a great job of getting the ball around the pins. Only difference was that wasn't what I was trying to do.

The second goal came less than 2 min later when Lauren earned us an offensive stroke. She was winding up for a shot with no defenders back to stop her, but one hacked her stick from behind. My roommate Jill stepped up to take the stroke. She scored no problem. Hitting the side board. We all celebrated. Being up 2-0 was awesome.

However the Refs were stroke happy it turned out. We then got 2 strokes called against us almost back to back. No biggie though. Ellyn LOVES strokes. She saved them both, making it look easy; which I can guarantee you it's not. Although Ithaca did score one goal to end the game 2-1 it we were still all thrilled with the win. One more bombers team defused and one more step towards the Empire 8 championship.

-Mal

TCNJ

The Stevens Field Hockey Team started off their 2010 season on September 1st with our first game against The College of New Jersey (TCNJ). This was an exciting time for the whole team. We traveled down to Trenton, NJ for our first away trip of the season. It was the freshman's first collegiate game and there was great anticipation of who would have those 11 starting positions on the field. The whole team was excited and pumped up to have the opportunity of playing this top ranked team as the season opener. The game started with a lot of intensity from both teams. Our goalkeeper Ellyn Griggs made a great play early in the game by stopping a breakaway and taking out a TCNJ player to deny her of a goal. TCNJ out shot us the first half by 3 shots but we were able to keep them scoreless and went into halftime tied 0-0. We talked during halftime of what we had to do as a team to dominate this game and come out with a win. We needed to get the ball into our offense and generate some shots. We wanted to win and we had the confidence of beating this team. We had a lot more opportunities on offense the second half, generating 2 offensive corners, but TCNJ was able to score in the 61st minute of the game. We unfortunately could not tie the game up within the last 9 minutes of the game so TCNJ came out with the win. We were happy with how we played as a team, especially for our first game of the season and while playing a very skilled top ranked team. We knew we still had a lot of kinks to work out and we knew what we would have to work on to try to fix our mistakes and to come out on top in the following games. This game showed a lot of heart and intensity from a lot of players on this team and it was a great way to start off the season!

Let Go Ducks!!!

-Karen Federico

Preseason 2010

On August 18th, the Stevens Field Hockey team reported for preseason. Most of the team moved in that day minus a few teammates who stayed in Hoboken for the summer. So after move-in we had a team meeting where we went over details for the season and then got to play a name game! Since it wasn’t the easiest to remember everyone’s names (even though we are attending a tech school) it was really helpful. After that we had our first dinner as a team at Panera, which I was lucky enough to have TWO times that day since my parents took me to lunch there before leaving to go back home. So after dinner I finished unpacking and went to sleep to get ready for our first practice.
Our team came in great shape to preseason which is always a plus! Getting up for 7 AM practices every day and then having another session later in the day left the team to be best friends with the ice bath! As a freshman who had never taken an ice bath before, I learned it really does help your aching muscles!

Preseason was plenty of fun! We had many team activities and learned the basics of how the system works. The team really showed we understood the concepts very quickly, individually everyone was improving - even after the first session. We concentrated on hits and you should see how powerful our hits are now! During preseason we also went in the pool one day and played a fun version of water polo, which was very humorous with our team. We really are a competitive bunch. We all worked super hard in preseason so it would pay off in the season. GO DUCKS!

Freshman- Caroline (a.k.a. Baby)

End of Season, Part 1

Spring Season 2010 – Week 4

The last day of practice was relaxed but productive as we prepared for the spring tournament at Western Connecticut. We had split into our two teams for a scrimmage the night before, and did so again on Friday to practice offensive and defensive corners. We also did my favorite thing, take strokes on the goalies! There’s something about being able to fake out a goalie and get the ball in the cage that makes it so much fun. The smack talk between us field players and the goalies probably has something to do with it too - no wagers this time. We then had a quick meeting after practice to wrap things up. I can't believe how quickly spring season went by - definitely bittersweet, but we were all pretty excited, or as we like to put it, “ready to rage” for Sunday!

Sunday morning we all woke up early to get breakfast and were ready to leave by 7:30 am. It was raining and cold but as Ducks do, we adjusted to the weather, because after all, Ducks love when it's wet! Following a quiet bus ride, we arrived at Western Connecticut, gathered our things and got ready to play. Midgey’s team (Stevens 1) played first, while my team (Stevens 2) rooted them on. They played well, but unfortunately lost that game on account of undeclared field markings. Whatever. That would be their only loss in pool play on the day. Stevens 1 went on to defeat an alumni team and Ramapo to win their pool and earn the #2 seed in the tournament. In the last game, the girls rallied for the win in a last minute scoring rampage, including an awesome reverse chip shot from Jill! It was pretty sweet!

Jess’s team, Stevens 2, went into the first game against the West Conn Alumni and won the game by a large margin - Lauren had 3 goals! We went undefeated in pool play, earning the #1 seed of the tournament. A quick intermission happened between games and my team played first in the 1v4 game against Southern Connecticut, who we had previously beaten in pool play. Despite being tired, we played well, but lost 3-1. Midgey’s team played next in the 2v3 game and played a great game but also unfortunately came out on the losing side too. Kudos to the other team's goalie for saving some sick shot. This meant that both teams were done (single game elimination crossover) but everyone had fun and got a ton of playing time. We improved throughout the day and you could see the work we've done over the past month has really been paying off!

The bus ride home for me was the realization that season was over until August. We all had improved so much and played so well, it made going to practice each day fun and interesting to see everyone's growth. All the fitness sessions with Meris suddenly didn’t seem so bad. As I’m sitting here writing this, it’s weird to think I don’t have to prepare for practice soon. I got back into the groove of season so much that I woke up on Monday morning at 6:15am, got dressed for practice... then realized I didn’t have practice. Weird. I wonder how many other teammates did the same thing. I'm excited for next season, so I say, bring it on!

<3 Meghan Broderick (Sophomore)

Spreading the Love

Spring Season 2010 – Week 3

Not only do we like to kick butt on the field hockey field, we also like to give back to the community we live in. We have a bunch of great activities planned and last Friday we went to a local soup kitchen in Hoboken. It was a great bonding experience for the entire team! Some girls were stuffing envelopes while others were neatly placing clothes on tables and serving food. But I’m almost positive everyone was singing along to the sweet jams in the background, especially Love Train. “People all over the world, join hands, start a love train.”

The next day we helped the Athletics staff by table sitting for the Stevens Men’s Lacrosse game. It was a great game versus RIT - A nail biter right until the end. Even though we lost, the ducks gave it all they had. Keep your head up guys and get ‘em next time!
It was a delight to see the incoming freshmen on Sunday for the President’s Tea - 13 showed up!! The current team made sure to get together, so we could all meet up with the recruits we hosted this past fall and winter, even spring. I can’t wait to see what they bring to the table next year. We are a great looking group of girls and we can only keep getting better.

Until next time, remember to spread the love! Join hands and start a love train.
- Nicole Pfeil

Alumni Game 4.16.10

Oldie But a Goodie [taken in Fall 2005]

This past Friday was our first legitimate Alumni scrimmage in program history. We were joined by Missy Scott & Cat (Titus) Freeman from the class of 2007, and Beth Rychcik (class of 2008) – all members of the original team back in 2004! Cat even brought her 6 month old daughter, Claire … definitely the cutest baby I have ever seen. For Real. Ever! Can’t say no to those baby blues.

Our more recent alumni representatives included Megan Clifford, Jessie Ablonczy & Erin Broderick - from this year’s team, and Myself (Midge), Kerri, Casey & Hillary - from the ’08 team. Elena Vazquez drove out from Reading, PA to play in addition to Steph Varjan, Allison “Worm” Basile, Lauren “Gutz” and Katie “Mo”schel also joining in on the fun. Between the lot of us, there was plenty of smack talk circulating … regardless of the results we were bound to have some laughs – too bad Ellyn & Worm were put on the same team.

The game was initially delayed due to thunder during our handball warm-up, so we had Alison, our trainer, stalk the radar until we got an open window to play. In the meanwhile we shared stories from the “early days” of Stevens Field Hockey. Some of my more fond memories included recounting our Moravian game, Missy’s list of team goals from 2004 (how many times can we get the ball over the 50, not to get scored on in the double digets, etc), and Hillary’s rage game – which she may or may not remember. I also organized a Who’s Who list, where the answers to most questions were different Alum’s names. This was meant to encourage current players to meet alumni, have them help figure out answers, and trigger reminiscence.

When we finally got outside, it was chilly and rainy, but once we got running you couldn’t feel it. In the first half teams were mixed and white was up 3-0 at half – sweet goals Bill! Go White! Then the alumni challenged the currents … didn’t work out as well as we planned, but I can’t complain, it was a good time. I think the girls had a good showing – really impressive to see what a few years has done! Currents came up with the ‘W’ but the alumni got to go out afterward, so everyone came out a ‘winner’ on the night.

Can’t wait for next year! Alums are coming back strong!!

<3 Midge

Is it really Half-way over?

Spring Season 2010– Week 2

As spring season flies by we approach our tournament- it’s bittersweet. Today one teammate even said, “Wow, we’re in our third week already?!” Time has truly flown by. Each week our skills increase and bonds grow stronger. We have moved past practicing basics to incorporating more advanced skills.

Practices, whether at 7am or 8 at night, are always eventful. Last week coach was sick (hope you’re feeling better Jess), and thankfully our volunteers & Midge ran practice. The drills were so fun and different from what we are used to – nice ideas Daniel! It was a great experience to practice our skills in new ways. Our volunteers are constantly helping the team (Thanks guys!); they teach us new tricks and help perfect our old ones. We’re a lucky bunch – love our volunteers! As the weeks have gone by I have noticed each person improving, our hits are hard and low, our zone is getting stronger each day, and each player is becoming more versatile. Like our new mission says, “We play to win through our dedication, discipline, and confidence.”

We have all finally gotten in our groove of being able to balance field hockey and school work. Even though the week is busy, it’s always fun. Sadly spring season will be coming to a close soon and finals will begin – at least we still have 2 weeks left. Luckily, before finals start we meet the incoming freshmen at The President’s Tea (next weekend already?) and are reminded of field hockey fun to come. We’re really looking forward to meeting our future teammates… any chance to take our minds off school and reminisce about FHOCing! It will also be a fabulous chance to become friends with them, then later stalk them on Facebook… just kidding ;-) We are all super excited to meet the new girls and start season again. I have a feeling summer is going to fly by just like this spring has been … we’ll all be back in pre-season before we know it.

(Written by Freshman, Cat Jaronczyk)

New Beginnings

Spring Season 2010 – Week 1

Every year, we say goodbye to a few familiar faces before the start of spring season– always bittersweet. In addition to our adored seniors, this group includes our beloved Assistant Coach Val. We are sad she will no longer be with us on a day-to-day basis, but are confident our bond will not fade. We are all so excited for her future with Keith and wish her lots of luck with her bundle of joy on the way! Team Baby #2! On a lighter note, we were recently informed that a handful of incoming freshman were accepted in Stevens’ Early Decision process. Congratulations and Welcome to the Stevens Field Hockey Family Ladies!!! Can’t wait for you all to get here!

We are all getting back into the groove of practice in addition to school work. The off-season was nice and relaxing, but there’s nothing like being on the field again with your team and coaches… Even if it’s at 7am. Our spring focus has a ‘back to basics’ feel, as we’ve been revisiting the mechanics of proper field hockey form and technique. So, not only will we be amazing, but our tricky skills will be so much more refined! While we’re getting back to basics, the team has undertaken the task of updating our mission statement. Our goal is to nip and tuck the program’s vision to captures the current attitude of the team. This way, we can add to the legacy set before us, with our own flair. It’s a new generation of Stevens FHOCers!!!!

Check back in next week for an update on Week 2!

Until then…

(<3 Freshman, Mary Baldeon)

CONGRATS LIZ!!!

Great news spread like wildfire across the pond from Paris, France to Hoboken, NJ ... Liz is officially off the market! If you want to know details, you gotta go to the source. We just wanted to express a big CONGRATULATIONS to our Tri-Captain, Right Back and Dark Lord!!!

WE LOVE YOU VOLDIE!!!

Academic Awards

(March 26, 2010) – The Stevens Institute of Technology field hockey team continued its run of academic honors as the team received the National Field Hockey Coaches Association (NFHCA) Team Academic Award for the sixth-straight season. In addition to the team award, seven team members were named to the 2009 Gladiator by SGI/NFHCA Division III National Academic Squad.

Sixth-year Head Field Hockey Coach Jessica Reed and her teams have received the academic team award every year since 2004 – the first year field hockey was a varsity sport at Stevens. The group combined for the 3.22 grade-point average in the fall – well above the 3.0 requirement for the team award.

Six freshmen and one junior were named to the National Academic Squad, which honors student-athletes who achieve a grade-point average of 3.30 or higher during the fall semester. Stevens has now had 54 student-athletes named to the team in program history. Junior Ellyn Griggs earned the honor for the third time and freshmen Mary Baldeon, Laura Cerito, Mary Nikish, Nicole Pfeil, Christina Sedberry, and Samantha Weisman all received the honor for the first time.

“Our team puts in a great deal of work both in and out of the classroom,” said Coach Reed. “We had a very successful season on the field and it is great to see their hard work in the classroom rewarded and acknowledged.”

Stevens submitted a perfect Empire 8 season for the second year in a row, winning the conference title, and advancing to the NCAA Division III Field Hockey Championship. The Ducks finished with an overall mark of 17-4 and are 36-8 over the last two seasons.

- Rob Kulish (Stevens Sports Information Director)

Indoor Play

Since NCAA’s the Stevens Fhoc team hadn’t seen as much of each other or gotten a chance to play together. It’s was a long wait until spring season, so a group of us joined an indoor field hockey league. Saturday mornings 10 of us pile into Erin Langan's minivan and Casey Scherck’s car to make the 30 minute journey to Morristown, NJ. There we meet up with Rebecca, a Montclair player that we have accepted into our family. While we are there, we play one game of 2 20 minute halves with a 5 minute half time.

Our team has been playing really well. We won 3 of our 4 games so far. We won the first game 9-0 and resorted to switching positions to keep from making an even larger scoring differential. The next game we dominated again, ending with a 7-0 score. Our first loss came against a really good team named "Sussex 2." We lost 0-4. The following week we made up for it by beating their sister team, "Sussex Plum," 6-0. The game vs. Sussex Plum was an exciting one. Sam W. scored on a stroke and Casey scored her first goal ever!!!!

The indoor games were a lot of fun. Stevens Fhoc really enjoyed getting to play together again especially with the special people who are joining us. As I am sure you all know Casey Scherck is one of our alumni. She’s a ridiculously great defender and it was awesome having her play with us again and give us pointers. It was also a really fun experience to get to play with Rebecca because she brought new ideas to the field... and we got to tease her about beating Montclair this past fall. Another player we played with was Karen Federico, who is returning to our team this spring after dealing with shin problems. I only had a chance to play with her for a few weeks my freshman year before she became injured and it was a lot of fun playing with her again.

The Indoor Team Members are: Ellyn Griggs, Lauren Griggs, Mary Baldeon, Meghan Broderick, Erin Langan, Christina Sedberry, Sam Weisman, Rebecca Dobiesz, Casey Scherck, Karen Frederico, and myself, Mallory Swanson... SEE YOU IN THE SPRING!

FHOC ANNUAL BANQUET BONANZA!

Whenever banquet time rolls around, it is always a very bittersweet occasion. It is always nice to reunite with the Duck family of course; however, it is also one of the last full group gatherings of the Field Hockey bunch – including the seniors. This year, as usual, we recognized all of the team’s accomplishments as well as those of the fan’s (including the top fans – my Mom’s canavan of people to games actually won part of the top fans – WOOOT MOM!).
I’ll give a very brief run-through of the events that occurred on that morning. Since all of us LOVE to eat, the banquet commenced with the seniors families going to the buffet first, followed by seniors, which then went onto the families of all players, and concluded with the eating of the players. We have a very special tradition where the wonderful families throw a tailgate for us after every game, and after each and every game, the families wait to eat/tailgate until us, players, eat first (even waiting for slow-pokes like me to get changed). So, at the banquet, we recognize that fact and wait on our families who have always waited on us.
After we filled our bellies, Coach Reed talked and then let us players talk about the wonderful group of seniors we have this year (Jessie Ablonczy, Kara Borzillo, Erin Broderick, Megan Clifford, and Liz Zmijewski). We gave our speeches, all of which praised the seniors for being the awesome people they are…but not forgetting to add humor to it because that’s how we always are.
During the speeches that us FHOCers give to the seniors, we also give them a scrapbook so they have the bestest pictures/memories of their time here on this team. Included in the scrapbooks were pictures from Halloween, team trip to Argentina, chubby bunny contests, team pictures, as well as a few pictures of a certain teammate just being plain evil. Items like these I think are the most rewarding to make because it lets us give the upperclassmen a token that they can always keep to remember the times they’ve had here at Stevens.
And, to keep the entertainment going, there were some outrageously funny moments of the brunch – an amazing highlight video was shown displaying the skill of our team and how far we’ve come from preseason. Even watching the video at the banquet, gave all of us goosebumps (maybe I can just change it here to duckbumps) to appreciate the truly remarkable talent of all of us on a whole. In addition to game tape, we also got a glimpse of each and every truly special senior. A ten-minute long tape was made that had the funny moments of each and every senior – including Jessie Ablonczy’s videotaping on the plane ride from Argentina when her and Cliff acted like the Crocodile Hunter, Kara pretending to be Scooby Doo and Erin pretending to be Velma, and of course having the Evil One tripping Coach on tape from Argentina. For that short time frame, my stomach hurt so much from laughing so hard.
After many thoughtful and sincere speeches (and of course tons of pictures which will be shown), the banquet was near over. The Ducks Family 2009 had reunited again – and it was no less pleasurable than everyone expected it to be. The only thing that would have made it truly the best, was if Val was there and that her Mother was safe and healthy. Her presence was missed but even from afar, the mark Val has on this team was felt.
All in all, when one chapter closes, another one opens. Seeing what we accomplished at the banquet made everyone exponentially more excited for the upcoming spring season and regular fall season to begin. I however cannot end this blog without adding a short side-note of what surprises the captains had in store for Coach Reed. Since she will be getting married in the summer, (and has, time and time again, convinced us that she cannot afford for all of us current and past players to attend her wedding), they threw a mach wedding – where she even threw a bouquet of flowers and had a veil. We all hope Coach Reed liked what the captains planned, especially so they’d know our presence will hopefully be felt at her wedding day as well.

<3 Lauren "Grigglet" Griggs

Erin "E"'s Senior Send Off

These past four years have been an incredible journey. Coming to the realization that my collegiate field hockey career is over has been difficult. Even though my senior season did not end the way I planned, it was one of the most rewarding. I learned more about my strengths and weaknesses this year than any other.

Stevens Field Hockey has been and will remain a huge part of my life. It really is true when people talk about the journey being more important than the outcome. I can’t recall many wins or losses but I can recall all of the friendships I have made and all of the adventures I have taken with this team. And, playing college hockey with my little sister, Meghan, was something special; a memory I will never forget.

I really thought I would have been a mess after my last field hockey game as a Stevens Duck. I was upset, yes, but it was more of a bittersweet feeling. It was a close to an amazing chapter in my life and an opening to a new beginning. I will be back next year, just watching my little sister and the rest of the team dominate, as always.

Much love,
Erin #30

Liz "Voldemort"'s Senior Words of Wisdom

If you had told me four years ago that I would be at the point in my life I am now I would have thought you were crazy. I would never have been able to fathom that I would play such a part in helping a then 2 year program win its first conference title and make its first trip to the NCAAs, let alone Captain the team to the same fate the following year.
When I was a freshman I was the quiet kid in the corner. Most of my classmates broke out of their shell the day they got here; some never even had a shell. Me, it took me a good two years to break out of my shell. I did get a few cracks along the way though. I still remember the first time I “took someone out.” We were doing a goalie bumping drill and Meris was filling in as our goalie. I knocked her over. Later, on an away trip where I was making my first collegiate start, Meris told me to do to W&J what I did to her. I remember running off the field at the end of the game and saying “Meris that was for you!” It was like Tom Riddle’s first dabbles into the Dark Arts ;) I can recall a few more moments when my shell started to crack, I called out Katie Mo for wearing her shorts backwards (on multiple occasions), and each and every time I knocked someone over during a game (which started happening more and more often) put another little crack in my shell.
Overall it was on our trip to Argentina when it all fell away. It was on this trip, as most of you know and saw at the banquet, that I took our Jess Reed. I guess you could say there’s no going back after that. While on a walk through Buenos Aires with Kara and Hillary, we got in a heated discussion about Harry Potter, it was during this time that Hillary decided I was our teams Voldemort (she was Harry as she had a scar on her leg that itched when I got close :) ). As I broke out off the field, I started to break out on the field too. My summer play had helped boost my skills and my confidence in them. My parents no longer cringed when I got the ball, and I knew no one on the other team would get the ball past me. During my junior year we had to fill out self-evaluations, and I was one of few people that actually checked “No-one in my conference is better than me.” I set high personal goals for myself that year, I wanted to score a goal and I wanted to receive end of season honors from the Empire 8.
My senior year it all came together. I was nervous coming in; we had lost such a talented group of girls the previous year. I knew we could and would do it all again, but it would take a lot of hard work. Seeing our freshman at camp helped ease my nerves. I could see the potential in all of them. During the season, we had our struggles, but I am so proud of everything that we overcame. In having previously won the Empire 8 Championship, and being voted to win again, we had a huge target on our back. Not only that but we were voted higher in the Coaches Poll than we had ended our season. Now, not only were our conference foes gunning for us, but EVERYONE was. In the end, we pulled through. We beat Montclair; we beat Rowan; we beat every team in our conference; we beat some twice and we won the Empire 8 Championship again. On our own turf. I couldn’t have asked for a better senior year. To be able to help the team accomplish so much, and to help lead the team to such accomplishments, meant a lot to me. Not only did we do great things as a team, personally I had achieved my goals. I scored my first goal (in my entire life!) against Hartwick, in double overtime, in the game that decided who would host the E8 tournament. And at the end of the season, I received second-team honors.
As I look back over my time here, I know I will never forget it. I have found confidence in myself that I will never lose, I have learned to follow, I have learned to lead, I have learned to get along with so many different personalities, I have learned to make friends with people I wouldn’t have imagined I would (Ellyn :) ), but most importantly I have learned who I am and how I got here and I will never forget that. I have great memories, from Halloween costumes (some won Ipods!), trips to other countries, trips to other states (we are one of the few teams here that wouldn’t give up our long road weekends for anything), weird voices, funny quotes, random dress up practices (Mexican Fiesta anybody?) and every person that I have been able to call a teammate and friend. It’s hard to go away to college, but having awesome teammates makes it easier. In fact it makes it hard to have to leave college. Thankfully some of my teammates have become my best friends who will start the next part of my journey with me, and I know I can shoot any of my teammates or coaches an email, text, or facebook wall posting whenever I need help or just want to keep in touch.