Colwell’s Court: Clare Kavanagh — Field hockey

Last Friday, the Hopkins field hockey team took to the field for the last game of 2016. Heading into their road finale against the Gettysburg College Bullets, the Jays were eager to make the last game of the season count.

Unfortunately, they faced stiff competition from the Bullets, who scored twice in the first half at the 11th and 17th minute marks. Despite the Jays’ best efforts, the Bullets could not be stopped and scored three more goals in the second period.

The Jays were at least able to stop the Bullets’ momentum towards the end of the second half, as junior Clare Kavanagh redirected a shot from senior Austin Davis to score the only Hopkins goal of the game.

With this accomplishment, Kavanagh garnered her seventh team-leading goal of the season and is being honored as this week’s Athlete of the Week: Clare, welcome to the Court!

This junior is a dynamic player on the field and a scholar in the classroom. Taking over in both the midfield and forward positions, Kavanagh has performed consistently over the past three years with a career-total of nine goals and seven assists.

As a neuroscience major with an art minor, Kavanagh handles the stress and difficult time-management that comes with being a student-athlete.

Kavanagh sat down with The News-Letter to talk about the field hockey team’s last game and how they will be preparing for next year during the offseason.

The News-Letter: Knowing Friday night’s game against Gettysburg would be the last of the season, how did the team prepare mentally?

CK: It is not fun to go into a game knowing you won’t be going to the postseason. Some teams might lose motivation or competitive drive to finish out the game. Thankfully our team did not do that, but unfortunately the scoreboard did not reflect our efforts.

N-L: At halftime, the team was down 2-0. What kind of adjustments did the team make in order to get on the board?

CK: We persevered with the game plan. We were having great passing patterns and were very successful up the left side of the field, but we were not using the right side.

Part of our game plan is to transfer the ball and not “force” it up one side, especially not the left.

We focused on redirecting the ball to the right, and were able to be more successful sending balls to our forwards who have incredible speed.

N-L: Talk us through your goal in the 58th minute.

CK: We had been getting a lot of corners and weren’t putting them away, so I’m glad we could finish. My role on the corners this year has been inserter, and then I close post. Unfortunately, it can be one of the most frustrating positions.

Shots come towards me and I am supposed to tip them in, so many times the ball is sent my way with the hope I can get a touch on it to redirect it.

I was pretty pumped to score, I mean who isn’t? But I have to say I don’t have the best celly on the team, Morgan Pothast is known as the ultimate celebrator, with her classic jump-hug. Bridget Hampton also has hilarious celebrations. Sometimes she looks like she doesn’t believe it went in!

N-L: You began the year with two total career goals and now you are finishing with a team-leading seven goals this season. What has led to your success this year?

CK: I have moved around to different positions over the years but for the most part have hung around the center of the field. Hypothetically, the center midfielder is supposed to be especially selfless and focus on distributing the ball. I have not always been the best at releasing the ball quickly. I have a bad habit of dribbling the ball for too long.

I have worked really hard the past three years to break that habit, and hopefully that shows. Also, I now insert on corners, so my job is to stand next to the goal and try to tip the ball in.

It can be pretty frustrating for the ball to fly right past me on corners, but I got better at tipping it in toward the end of the season, which is where most of my goals came from — when my teammates send an awesome shot and I just redirect it to the goal.

N-L: What will you miss most about the senior class?

CK: Wow, this year has been produced a massive overhaul of the team culture. We have never conditioned as hard as we have in the past 12 months and we put in more hours of practice than years past, all of which would have been impossible without our senior class.

We had such a diverse group of seniors — shoulders to cry on off the field and shoulders to push us on the field. It is intimidating to try and fill the gap they have left. True mentors.

N-L: How will the team be preparing in the offseason? Any predictions for the team next year?

CK: Our team is divided between youngsters and veterans. We had an incoming class of eight this past year and the rising seniors are a class of six. We also had three sophomores, so we have a good balance of experienced players and players willing to learn.

I was so impressed with the improvement of our freshmen this season. They stepped up in so many ways and are such a strong class.

Next year we are bringing back seven-nine people who consistently started this past season. Probably most impressive is we are returning our entire back field: Francesca Cali, Katie McErlean, Amy Hallowell and Greta Helvie in goal.

The next step is working on building up our skills, which I wholeheartedly believe we will accomplish. Spring season 6 a.m. lifts are not the most glamorous part of training, but the hard work will pay off. And most importantly, we are willing to put in the work.