Field hockey celebrated seniors during their last regular season home game.
The Owls are saying goodbye to eight players this season. They made it to the LEC championships where they fell to the University of Southern Maine. This year, they are saying goodbye to #6 Emma Cahoon, #12 Hannah Olmstead, #18 Paula Vasiliadis, #37 Demetria Gonzalez, #64 Molly Edmark and fifth-years #7 Hailey Patridge, and #21 Emily White. The girls lost their senior game to Union College; in the final minute of the fourth quarter, Union found one last goal to bring them ahead of the Owls, ending the match with 2-1 over the Owls.
Hearing from some of the seniors, it’s clear they all helped each other through the challenges they faced throughout the seasons.
“We’ve had a really weird journey here starting with our freshman year and having it be COVID-19 time and like just playing intrasquad scrimmages. not really getting a lot of quality game time that we are getting now. I think from that to now coming to our last few games of our senior year, these three years have been full of growth,” said Edmark. Those early seasons helped bring the group closer together, helping one another overcome different challenges.
“We are a really tight-knit group. We like to call each other the fab five. We’ve also been lucky enough to have two fifth-years come back and join us,” said Edmark.
The head coach Amy Watson also spoke on what the girls had to overcome. “They’re that one class that came in that didn’t really get the true preseason field hockey experience. It was so based on that they started off, kind of behind the eight ball, unfortunately. but they’ve been resilient, I think they were kind of bred to fight through adversity,” Watson said. Learning to overcome different experiences has bred all the girls to be so much stronger, which in turn makes it so they can help the whole team get stronger for the following years. Emily White was fortunate enough to be able to come back as a fifth-year, on top of having a short COVID-19 season, she also was injured following her junior year season.
“Because of COVID, I had an extra year of eligibility. I injured myself following my junior year season and because of my surgeries and everything, I came back, added a minor and everything. So I actually didn’t even officially graduate last spring, I’ll actually walk this spring” explained White.
Coach Watson went on to talk about how the seniors helped bring everyone together,
“I think this team genuinely likes each other, and I think that that is like a testament to the upperclassmen leadership, you know, they’ve provided a welcoming culture for new players to come into. They appreciated what the new players were bringing into the program and I think that goes a long way, if you can get your new players to buy in and feel a part of the team, the family, the culture, that’s only gonna yield positive results moving forward.”
The girls were able to welcome everyone with open arms, thinking about everything that the new players could bring to the team both on and off the field. Every senior should be happy seeing that the program will still be able to succeed once they are gone.
A few of the girls talked about this season and what to expect in the coming years, “I went into the season a little bit nervous about how things were going to go because we lost a lot of returners. but I think that we kind of defied a lot of odds to get here,” said Cahoon. The team gained a handful of first-years this year, along with two transfers. Their impact was noticed with sophomore transfer Grace Bazin gaining multiple recognitions from the LEC and being one of the top players on the field.
“Just seeing them grow in the last few months has been awesome. I think that the best part about being an upperclassman is watching these people come in and then seeing how much they’ve succeeded already, it’s just so awesome to be a part of that,” said Cahoon. With the Owls falling to Southern Maine during the LEC championship, their season has come to an end. Next season is still looking bright as the team expects to return their top six scorers.
Nikolas O’Connor can be contacted at
noconnor@kscequinox.com
In the Nov. 9 issue of The Equinox, The Equinox wrote Emily White
as Emma White in the article “Field hockey celebrates seniors.” The Equinox apologizes for these errors.
