On long car rides with the family, it’s common to find oneself running through a full gamut of emotions. Boredom, giggle fits and drowsiness almost always find a way of creeping up on a person stuck in a vehicle for hours on end.
The same goes for the Ohio field hockey team, which has traveled everywhere from upstate New York to Philadelphia and even North Carolina on separate trips this season. And when it comes down to it, its members have become as much a family as any team could hope for.
Bus karaoke and bus court are some of the more notable games that help bond the team on those long bus rides. Players have the opportunity to vote for the movies watched on the trip, helping them pass time.
Those activities, along with spending a weekend with the same people, encourage bonding, seniors Taylor Brown and Cathryn Altdoerffer said.
On a recent trip to Philadelphia to play St. Joseph’s, the team members stopped by senior Andrea Biegalski’s house for a meal, allowing them to relax and bond.
“It’s just nice to have other people, family members and so on, come in, hang out with and relax,” coach Neil Macmillan said. “It’s good family time, and that’s what we try to breed here — an OU field hockey family — and we want to grow that as much as we can.”
And as the team has had more bonding time the last two weeks, with road trips to St. Joseph’s and Wake Forest, the offensive performance has seen a boost. Ohio has scored 13 goals in a four-game stretch, winning three out of four contests and reasserting itself as a threat in the Mid-American Conference.
Junior Riley Higgins scored the first goal of her Bobcat career, and Altdoerffer scored her first two goals of the season against Ball State.
Macmillan said the team doesn’t rely on one or two players to succeed, allowing the team to play good field hockey without contributions on the score sheet from good players like Altdoerffer.
“We try not to rely on any one person,” he said. “That’s been our idea the last few years. And while Brown and Altdoerffer, especially last year, took a lot of the accolades, it’s nice to see other people getting in there.”
But while the team features a balanced attack, the contribution Brown, who moved into a tie for third on Ohio’s all-time goal scoring list, is making this season has been vital to Ohio’s success.
Brown has a career-high eight assists, which is five more than she had in any other season as a Bobcat. Macmillan said he doesn’t think there’s any real reason for the uptick in helpers or the decrease in goals, but one reason could be the reputation she has earned throughout collegiate field hockey.
“I think when every team does a scouting report on us, she’s one of two players on the top of that scouting report,” Macmillan said. “And when they do that, they take away her opportunities to score somewhat.”
ch203310@ohiou.edu
