They practice six out of the seven days of the week, and they have also been recently ranked 19th in the nation. Who are we referring to? Eastern University’s own field hockey team.
This season has been full of wins for these girls. Though it has been challenging with all the hard work they have put in, the team has grown, they report.
According to team captain junior Stephanie Moyer, last year dealt with a lot of practices focused on basic fundamentals. This year she feels like the team possesses many of those basic fundamentals and are therefore able to focus on deeper aspects of the game.
“We have a strong offense and defense this year, and all the first-years and transfers have added depth to our bench,” said junior Jaime Heck. Although there are many key players, she added that goal making is evenly distributed among the team.
“This year we have a really good sense of team unity,” said Heck.
“We connect both on and off the field,” Moyer added.
With their first loss of the season, against The College of New Jersey, Eastern put up an impressive final score of 3-2. Compared to last year’s loss to TCNJ by a score of 7-0, the girls have definitely proved that they are up for any challenge and can hold their own against highly ranked teams.
In addition, according to the team’s webpage, Eastern’s field hockey team was the first this year to score twice against nationally ranked number one TCNJ.
Of the three years she has been on the team, Heck said that this season has definitely been the best.
“This season has had one of the most successful starts in [Eastern’s field hockey] history,” she said.
One of the biggest changes noticed from last year to this year was the connections among the players. A lot of girls have been playing together for the past three years, and consequently they know how each other plays better than before.
According to Moyer, the best parts of the season so far were their wins against William Patterson and Alvernia. “They were both defining moments for us,” she said. “We have consecutively lost against them [Alvernia],” Heck added, “so for us it was a very mentally challenging game.”
When asked to sum up the season with three words Moyer said, “Fun, challenging, and intense.”
For some on the team, this season holds a special place in their hearts. “I’ve never been a part of such a successful team in my entire life,” said Heck. “This is an amazing experience.”
The success of this season not only lies in the connection between all the players and the hard work they have put forth, but also in the fact that they have been winning against conference as well as non-conference schools.
On their latest loss to Cabrini (3-2), Moyer said, “We have had some rough games recently, but we are ready to go ahead and to give it all we got. We are now full of desire.”