I sat down with Dartmouth field hockey players Lisa Masini '13 and Maya Herm '13 to talk about the Big Green's season, team shenanigans and its approaching offseason. The Big Green began the season by winning its first three League games, and even after two weekend loses, the team is now tied with Harvard University for fourth place in the conference.
The women's field hockey team has gone 8-7 overall and 3-2 in Ivy League competition. How do you feel about how the season has gone so far?
MH: I think we are a really strong team. We're a talented team. Right now we're trying to get through the tough part of the season. We've faced some tough competition, but we were able to start off strong. We also have a lot of great girls.
LM: I agree with all of that. We lost some tough games to some really good teams. Many of our opponents, like [Boston University], were ranked. We also have had some close losses. We just lost to [Boston College], but we were tied 4-4 at the half. We never stop fighting.
You have three games left in the season, including two League contests. What are your goals?
MH: We obviously want to win both. I think wins are pretty necessary. I know we have faith and the drive to do it.
LM: We really just want to finish the season strong.
Are you looking forward to the end of the season and having some more free time?
LM: I'm actually going to be so sad when the season's over. At the beginning of the season I was already freaking out that we only had two seasons left. This team has been a great thing to be a part of.
MH: I know. After this we're the seniors. Lets be real though, we hang out outside of field hockey. We're always together. I don't think we eat meals with people not on the team.
Besides eating, what do you all do together outside of field hockey?
MH: We hike the fire tower, we do Chinese fire drills outside of Ice Cream Fore U...
LM: Yeah, we're always at Ice Cream Fore U. Besides that, we're just generally fhocking around.
MH: I should probably clarify that "fhocking" is a term that we created. "F(ield)hock(eying)"... So funny.
What do you all do during the offseason to prepare for the regular play?
MH: Winter training is pretty intense. It's a lot of early morning runs and lifts, although I think that could potentially change. A lot of the sophomores and juniors take the winters off to experience other things, though.
LM: We have a much smaller team in the winter so we don't play as much. Spring is much more like the fall, but without the games.
You start your season off so early, before most students are back on campus. Is that weird for you?
MH: It's actually a lot of fun. It's really focused on field hockey. It's nice that we don't have to worry about balancing school and other things. Other fall sports teams are here, so it's a good socializing month. It's empty, but we like it.
LM: You kind of feel like a pro athlete, hanging out, eating, obviously getting to know the freshmen. This year was a little different than others because we had finals after sophomore Summer during preseason, but our coaches were really understanding.
Since you are around each other so much, I'm sure there must be some kind of team shenanigans.
LM: Yes there are. During preseason, we generally just fhock around. We teepee each other's rooms and other things.
MH: We had a prank last spring that didn't go over well. The coaches and one of the girls on our team were all in on it. They conviced us that one of our freshmen was transferring.
LM: Yeah, I was so pissed at the time. We were all so upset.
MH: Afterword it was hilarious and we still joke about it. At the time though, it was not so funny. We also have a locker room dance and we yell funny things when we walk out onto the field, although they haven't been that funny lately. They've been kind of lacking. For the [Brown University] game, we yelled, "What's the color of dirt?" We need to work on them.
Any chance that the locker room dance will make an appearance at dance parties?
MH: Fo' sho'. Once we can finally go out.
LM: We'll be evacuating the dance floor.
