Seniors Ferger and Schoffstall Leave Strong Impression on Duke Field Hockey

This past Saturday's game against Virginia marked the final regular season home contest for two Blue Devil seniors - Susan Ferger and Sarah Schoffstall.

Over the past four years, these two veterans have played in a combined 140 games with the Blue Devils, leading Duke to two NCAA Tournament appearances and a run to the national quarterfinals in 2008.

Ferger, a forward from Columbus, Ohio, has been a four-year starter, amassing 27 goals, eight assists and 62 points during her time in Durham. She was an All-South honoree in 2007 and has earned NFHCA Academic All-America recognition in her career.

A defender from New Tripoli, Pa., Schoffstall ahs played in 66 games, starting 48, in her career. A two-year captain, she has helped anchor the Duke backline this season, while earning NFHCA Academic All-America and Academic All-ACC honors during her career.

Read Abby Hassinger and Samantha Nelson's comments below to learn the full impact of these two seniors.

From Abby Hassinger...
The seniors have been such an important influence on the underclassmen. Their leadership, as well as their friendship, has encouraged us to become better players as well as better individuals. Sarah and Sue are constantly going above and beyond their required duties to this team and have made this season one of the most rewarding thus far. Their determination and drive have inspired us all to work a little harder and give a little more. Sarah has been an amazing mentor and we know she will continue to do so in the future. Her passion for field hockey is contagious. Sue has been a leader both on and off the field. She is always offering us underclassmen advice about field hockey. Sue's kind spirit and bubbly personality will be greatly missed. We want to thank our seniors for all they have done for this team! They will be greatly, greatly missed.

From Samantha Nelson...
I feel extremely fortunate to have two sue great friends and teammates in Sarah and Sue. Over the past four years, I can honestly say that there are no two better people to lead this team.

Sarah has been a source of constant support for me personally and most everybody on this team. She has been our fearless leader, she pushes us to be better and always holds us to this highest standards. This is particularly inspiring because Sarah herself is so motivated; when Sarah sets out to do something, there is no doubt she will accomplish it. She is wise beyond her years, and this team has been undeniably changed by her legacy.

Sue is one of the toughest people I know. She can take anything you throw at her; she just takes it in stride and makes it look easy. Her commitment to the team these past four years has been absolutely unwavering, and in tough times that has been an invaluable quality. I admire Susan greatly because she operates with complete integrity in everything she does. She will, without a doubt, leave behind a stronger program that will remember her for her dedication and steadfastness.

Molly Johnson Grants Fans Inside Access to Weekend Results

On Friday, we had our much anticipated night game against William & Mary. In the locker room, everyone was anxious to get out on the field and play, but due to delayed referee arrival, our game was unexpectedly postponed from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. However, this minor setback did not stop us from dominating the game for over 90% of the time. Although our domination may not be apparent in the final score of 1-0, we accomplished our first win of the weekend.

After the game, our attention shifted to an opponent of more strength: Old Dominion. We had all the tools we needed to win Sunday's game, and knew that ODU would not throw anything at us that we hadn't seen before. We used our loss to them earlier in the season as fuel to pump us up and motivate us to go out strong, leaving no room for regrets. In games of this intensity, scoring the first goal is crucial to gain the momentum necessary to win. Our freshman defender Brenna Rescigno took this in stride, scoring two goals off of direct corner hits. Although ODU came back in the second half to tie it up and put the game into overtime, our fight and heart (and obvious overtime experience) were clear as day when Mary Nielsen scored in the first 47 seconds of the golden goal overtime.

Our 2-0 weekend felt especially good since midterm exams are finally over and since we were able to spend more time than usual with our parents, for those who could make it to Virginia. It also made Susan and my birthdays on Monday especially happy. We are all very excited to finish out the conference season with two more wins, against Penn State this weekend and against UVa on October 30.

Additionally, one of our team's favorite events - Halloween - is fast approaching! It's always fun to be able to assign the coaches their costumes ... although sometimes the assignments they give us in return are really hard to find or construct costumes for!

- Molly

Rhian Jones Discusses Last Week's Results

Last weekend, the Duke field hockey team faced two Boston rivals in Boston College and Boston University. Eager to get our competitive nature riled up for the weekend, the team had a competition day on Friday at practice, where the blondes faced off against the brunettes. Clad in pink ribbons, sparkly tank tops, and striped socks the blondes proved victorious in the battle of the hues. Following a fun day of practice, the whole team and our parents were invited to dinner at Beth’s house where we filled up on delicious food and relaxed before the big weekend.

Saturday’s game against BC was a narrow loss and reminded us of our need to be engaged for the full game and finish our opportunities. Eager to redeem our performance and get back on track for the remainder of our season, the team was determined to come away with a win on Sunday. Boston University was physical and powerful, but our desire to win shone throughout the 70 minutes and a crafty goal by Caashia gave us the win. The victory was a reminder of how dangerous our team can be when we operate as a unit and work hard. I was so excited and proud of our performance on Sunday and the feeling has carried over into this week of practice. The team and I are eager to bring home two wins in the critical matchups against the University of Maryland and American University this weekend!

Go Duke!

-Rhian

2010 Field Hockey Player Survey

The members of the Duke field hockey team recently completed a team survey, giving fans the inside scoop on the program from the players themselves. Each student-athlete was asked the following questions about their teammates. The number in parentheses indicates the number of votes for that individual. Only student-athletes with two or more votes were listed in the results. The Blue Devils hit the road this weekend to take on No. 2 Maryland Saturday, Oct. 9 and No. 10 American Sunday, Oct. 10. Both games are scheduled for 1 p.m. starts.

Of your teammates, who is the most competitive?

Mary Nielsen (15 votes)

Devon Gagliardi (5 votes)

Tara Jennings (2 votes)

Who is the strongest in the weight room?

Sarah Schoffstall (23 votes)

Which teammate is the most likely to be a head coach in the future?

Stefanie Fee (12 votes)

Sarah Schoffstall (8 votes)

Molly Johnson (2 votes)

Who was in the best shape when school started?
Megan Deakins (12 votes)

Sarah Schoffstall (7 votes)

Who has the craziest pregame ritual?

Samantha Nelson (7 votes)

Abby Hassinger (5 votes)

Molly Johnson (2 votes)

Mary Nielsen (2 votes)

Which teammate has the strongest shot?

Caashia Karringten (15 votes)

Brenna Rescigno (7 votes)

Which teammate is the fastest?

Megan Deakins (10 votes)

Rhian Jones (5 votes)

Tara Jennings (4 votes)

Rhian Jones (4 votes)

Emmie Le Marchand (4 votes)

Who is the best dressed?

Grace Christus (6 votes)

Ashley Camano (5 votes)

Micaela Paterson (3 votes)

Mary Nielsen (2 votes)

Who is the team’s best singer?

Caashia Karringten (8 votes)

Emmie Le Marchand (5 votes)

Mary Nielsen (4 votes)

Which teammate shops the most?
Tara Jennings (23 votes)

Which teammate would love to be on a reality TV show?

Brenna Rescigno (10 votes)

Sarah Schoffstall (3 votes)

Chelsea Amsley (3 votes)

Who talks on the phone the most?

Susan Ferger (12 votes)

Devon Gagliardi (6 votes)

Rhian Jones (3 votes)

Which teammate studies the most?

Megan Deakins (18 votes)

Mia Wise (4 votes)

Which teammate is most likely to win “Jeopardy?”

Jordan Miller (10 votes)

Megan Deakins (5 votes)

Mia Wise (2 votes)

Molly Johnson (2 votes)

Who has the strongest accent (southern, foreign, etc.)?

Micaela Paterson (14 votes)

Emmie Le Marchand (7 votes)

Which teammate is the pickiest eater?

Paula Heimbach (16 votes)

Caashia Karringten (6 votes)

Which teammate sleeps the most?

Chelsea Amsley (15 votes)

Jordan Miller (4 votes)

Paula Heimbach (2 votes)

Who is the quietest?

McKay Ross (10 votes)

Paula Heimbach (10 votes)

If you were stranded on an island with one teammate, who would you want it to be?

Abby Hassinger (4 votes)

Mary Nielsen (3 votes)

Ashley Camano (2 votes)

Jordan Miller (2 votes)

McKay Ross (2 votes)

Stefanie Fee (2 votes)

Who has the biggest sweet tooth?

Paula Heimbach (23 votes)

Who spends the most time on Facebook/Myspace/Twitter?

McKay Ross (8 votes)

Brenna Rescigno (3 votes)

Paula Heimbach (2 votes)

Ashley Camano (2 votes)

Mary Nielsen (2 votes)

Who is the best dancer?

Stefanie Fee (10 votes)

Jordan Miller (6 votes)

Micaela Paterson (3 votes)

Who drinks the most coffee?

Ashley Camano (12 votes)

Stefanie Fee (5 votes)

Susan Ferger (3 votes)

Who is the slowest in the locker room and training room?

Chelsea Amsley (24 votes)

Who makes you laugh the most?

Jordan Miller (9 votes)

Rhian Jones (5 votes)

Abby Hassinger (2 votes)

Who is the best cook on the team?

Jordan Miller (19 votes)

Samantha Nelson (5 votes)

Who has the cleanest locker?

Brenna Rescigno (10 votes)

Paula Heimbach (10 votes)

Megan Deakins (3 votes)

Who smiles the most?

McKay Ross (12 votes)

Sarah Schoffstall (4 votes)

Susan Ferger (2 votes)

Abby Hassinger (2 votes)

Which teammate is the most inspiring?

Stefanie Fee (10 votes)

Sarah Schoffstall (5 votes)

Jordan Miller (3 votes)

Who is most likely to become the first female President?

Mia Wise (7 votes)

Samantha Nelson (5 votes)

Megan Deakins (3 votes)

Ashley Camano (3 votes)

Grace Christus Reviews Weekend Results

After two great games this past weekend, there are so many things that assure me that this season will be a great one. After a tactical and intense practice Friday afternoon, my teammates and I were ready for the weekend. Later that evening, we met as a team over some delicious snacks to talk about our goals for Saturday. We sat together and really shared our commitment to leaving everything on the field and having no regrets. That night I laid in my humble abode and confessed to my roommate, “I have a really good feeling about tomorrow.” Before I knew it, I was dining at the Devil’s Den with the team along with four recruits. We got to know them and them us over a hearty breakfast. Finally, 1 o’clock came. As we huddled up before the game, we all knew that it wasn’t about our opponent, where they were from or the color of their uniform, it was about us, about Duke Field Hockey. We battled relentlessly the whole game, connecting passes, out letting and transferring better than ever before. Although we came up short, it was a turning point in our season. It was a new standard for every member of our team and we all agreed that we would only go up from that level of play and continue to improve.

After the game was our tailgate, with delicious wings, pasta salad, fruit and a ton of other food. A significant group of our biggest fans, our parents of course, enjoyed the tailgate as well. We took our recruits to the ever so exciting football game that afternoon, where we watched Duke take on Army. The game was a great experience, we sat right behind the Duke bench so the fabulous seats didn’t hurt. After a long day in the hot Carolina sun, we dined at Elmo’s where I indulged in probably the best BLT I have had in North Carolina (obviously still not as good as the BLTs in New Jersey). The following day, we played Richmond and were victorious. We played well and we played together. We are determined to come out of next weekend’s games with two great wins, knowing that we must put in the work this week at practice.

Aside from field hockey, Duke has been everything I envisioned and more. I love the classes I am taking, a fair amount of reading, but managing my time well is the key and so far so good! I really enjoy my multimedia documentaries class, it focuses on photography and how images are used in projects like documentaries or simply to tell a story. It is a bonus that my roommate and two other field hockey freshmen happen to be in the class. Most of my meals are enjoyed at the Marketplace, which is the cafeteria for students on East Campus. It makes my day when I walk into the dining hall and see that pasta with a choice of red sauce or Alfredo sauce is being served. After dinner, I also enjoy some of their delicious blueberry pie al a mode. It is also very common for my roommate and I to order Jimmy Johns subs as a midnight snack, it makes the late night studying a little more enjoyable.

With the team looking better and growing everyday and school going great, my start here at Duke has been made of a lot of work but with truly unparalleled rewards. This coming weekend promises two great games and I can’t wait to be a part of it.

-Grace

Samantha Nelson Senior Profile

- What is the best thing about being a Duke field hockey player?
Samantha Nelson: Having our own facility. It’s one of the nicest things and very unique to our team. Sometimes I wish it was a little more accessible to the rest of the student body rather than just the freshmen, but I think it’s really nice to be able to have our own field.
- What is your favorite sport to watch on TV?

SN: Since rooming with my teammate Susan [Ferger], she is an ESPN Sportscenter guru, I really like watching football.

-What is your favorite sport to play other than field hockey?

SN: I really liked soccer when I was younger. I’ve been a single-sport athlete for a number of years now, but I definitely loved soccer.

-Do you have any pre-game superstitions?

SN: Not really. I usually try to take a moment to myself in the locker room just to pull my thoughts together. It’s always really loud and people are laughing and talking, music’s playing, but I think it’s important to have a moment to yourself to collect your thoughts and focus.

-What do you watch on TV?

SN: I guess True Blood is my new TV obsession right now. There’s not so much time for TV during the school year.

-What do you have on your iPod?

SN: My favorite song right now is Sweet Disposition by Temper Trap. I’m one of those people, who, when they like a song, just plays it over and over and over again for two weeks straight, which is another thing my roommate would tell you drives her crazy about me.

-What was your first job?

SN: I’ve coach field hockey before at Duke camps, but my first in-the-workforce job was this past summer. I worked for a lobbying firm in Washington D.C. It was a lot of fun and I really enjoyed it.

-Who has had the biggest impact on your life?

SN: I’d have to say my family, specifically my brother. Anybody who’s not an only child can definitely say that their siblings have had a big impact on their life and how they grow up. My little brother, Taylor, we’re about four years apart, but we’ve gotten to an age where we can be friends.

-Who is the best cook in your family?

SN: Definitely my mom, and my teammates can all tell you this because she cooks for my team and for tailgates. That’s one of the things I missed most when I started college, home-cooked meals.

-What is your favorite home-cooked meal?

SN: My mom makes incredible lemon chicken.

-What is your favorite snack?

SN: I guess this is sort of because I’m in college and it’s really easy to eat, but whenever I’m hungry I always eat bananas with peanut butter.

-What has been your favorite class at Duke?

SN: I’ve had a couple, but this semester I’m taking American Business History, which is probably the most reading I’ve ever had to do for a history class. It’s really interesting. It’s one of those classes where it’s just like reading a story that is really dramatic and never-ending; I really enjoy it.

-What has been your toughest class at Duke?

SN: Last year I had an International Relations class where we had to write a 25-page research paper and that was my first big paper in college. That was definitely the most consecutive hours I’ve ever spent in the library the week that I had all my midterms and my research paper was due. It was a marathon.

-What will you miss most about the university after graduation?

SN: Everything. I really enjoy the lifestyle of just being a student. I love being able to go to class, meet friends for lunch, then going to practice. Just walking around the Duke campus and walking to class is a pleasure, so I guess I will also miss the scenery.

Mary Nielsen Recaps Weekend with Literary Review

The Duke field hockey team went 1-1 this past weekend, falling to No. 8 Wake Forest on sudden-victory penatly strokes before rebounding with a 2-1 overtime victory against No. 13 Drexel. Sophomore Mary Nielsen provides a literary review of the weekend's events.

Buried in my Latin textbook, my mind wandered whimsically - I contemplated key elements to this past weekend, DUFH's third week in season. The only idea milling about stood adamantly between my pen and the paper, its origins deep in ancient Rome; and so, with conviction, I clung to it, fighting not the air or art of inspiration as I shall share such with you now.

The phrase I had just translated "Pulchras est sevire" - to serve is beautiful. If I could find a word to supplement "each other" in Latin, I would place it into this sentence, but I don't yet know how to delicately weave together ripe observations of human nature like Ovid, so let's just assume it's in there.

As much of a tragedy Saturday's game was, it was a beautiful tragedy. As Jack says, "collegiate athletes of today are the poet warriors of the past;" I dare someone to disagree. Pouring down rain, knees bleeding, wrists practically broken, emotions effusively pulsing through our veins - how could it not be romantic? And with such verve and ardent energy, how could we not get something out of it, in slight, a realization?

A game of attrition, we played on and on at Wake. From Chels' diving goal with twenty seconds left to tie the game up, to a moment of pure agony within the last minute of double overtime, when I was blasphemously crushed upon the turf, by not only a defender's entire body mass but her goalie's, as well. This action was of course by the opposing team, so it felt even worse than you could somewhat relate to. I only took a small amount of the Blue Devils' beatings, however. Young Megan had a near fractured wrist, Miss Stefanie had fallen after the game with calf cramps, and dear Rhian of Philadelphia had more bruises on her legs and gluteus maximus than a red head has freckles. And yet the game went forth, from strokes to sudden death strokes.

Wet with defeat, we were forced to accept the outcome - a loss, our first ever, in strokes. It became a part of who we were, though it did not define who we will become, who we have become. Jarred spoke to us all in our final huddle at Wake, about how well we had worked together: "You win as a team, and you die as a team," he had said.

With a new day was a new life, and we were ready to rise from the ashes, giving the Drexel Dragons more than they could ever hope to face. Our first home game was fueled with a parent/team breakfast at the Devil's Den where in good company we prepared for our last battle of the weekend. One word was on our mind, regardless how and what we would do to get there: win. Despite another overtime encounter we emerged victorious, and rightfully so.

The parents' support could only be rivaled by the columns of the parthenon - with grace, beauty and standing, without question, through all weather. With the parents' presence came that of food, which was provided, and deliciously devoured by hungry members of the DUFH community. With another weekend gone comes another week's preparation. And the words of the wise will not be forgotten - to serve is a beautiful thing, not only serving to each other but for each other. I digress.

- Mary