“Let’s sign a brick you guys.”
Field hockey head coach Michele Madison speaks to her team’s Leadership Group in the field hockey locker room with a smile on her face, beaming with pride over a perfect 10-0 season at the MSU Field Hockey Complex.
“We have to sign a brick, we just went undefeated at home,” Madison said.
Matching last year’s 16-6 overall record, Big Ten Championship and Elite Eight appearance is no small feat, but with the help of four women this year’s No. 5 squad already has surpassed the win total with a 17-2 record, and has set its tournament sights higher than ever.
“Our ultimate goal this year is advancing to the Final Four,” junior back Alexandra Kyser said.
Kyser, along with senior midfielder Cynthia Martin, junior forward Theresa Pusateri and sophomore back Judith van Haeringen make up the field hockey Leadership Group. These team-elected individuals serve as the link between coaches and players, and strive to be positive role models on and off the field.
In addition to weekly meetings with Madison to discuss player issues, the group plans activities to help preserve team chemistry, something Pusateri said is abundant on the MSU squad.
“We’re different from some of the other teams. We all get along and hang out together,” she said. “We’ve painted the rock (on Farm Lane), gone to movies and had dinners - all as a team. We get along great.”
Helping freshmen acclimate first to college life and then collegiate athletics is no small task, but the group readily accepts the challenge.
Before practices began this season, the group met and hung out with the 11 newcomers to get to know them.
“We have to set the example, and push the freshmen,” Martin said. “One of our step goals during the spring was to help the freshman get on track.”
One freshman seems to have benefited especially from the group’s example, as forward Michelle Huynh-Ba was named National Rookie of the Week this week.
Huynh-Ba’s 11-tally season tops the Big Ten among rookie athletes and is fifth overall in the conference.
While working as a unit on most activities, each leadership member has individual duties as well, ranging from uniform coordination and warm-up and cool-down exercises to keeping the locker room clean and peppered with inspirational signs and messages for the team.
After graduation each member plans to take some time to travel and relax, but right now there are only two road trips that matter - a trek to Columbus, Ohio, for the Big Ten Tourney on Nov. 8-10, and a journey to the NCAA Tournament in Louisville, Ky., on Nov. 22-24.
When asked how the team feels about the upcoming tournaments, Kyser replied, “We’ll just go out there and play our best and try to improve each game, and what comes along with it is just a bonus.”
The group - and the Spartans - have already made their mark on the field, and now as they gather to make their mark on the wall for an undefeated home season the question maybe isn’t how far they’ll go, but maybe how many bricks will be covered.
