By Mark Mausner — STAFF WRITER
Hofstra women’s lacrosse freshman goalie Maddie Fields has been a pleasant surprise in the net for the Pride this season. Her performance in goal is a bright spot in what has been a difficult season for the team.
Fields boasts a 12.92 goals-against average, a team-best for players that have posted over 250 minutes between the pipes. She gives a great deal of credit to her fellow goalie Alexis Greene for showing her the ropes.
“She is a mentor,” Fields said. “She really took me under her wing when I got here and even when I wasn’t playing, she was always helping me and telling me exactly what we were doing. We’ve become really close; we’re like best friends now.”
Instead of being competitors fighting for one position, they’ve worked together to help each other improve. Fields credits this to the great chemistry the team has.
“I can say I’ve bonded with everyone on the team,” Fields said.” There’s never an awkward moment with anyone, so I’d say those are some good team qualities. I wouldn’t want to be on a team where I couldn’t just have fun and talk with everyone on the team.”
Fields holds a record of 2-2 on the season, including an 11-9 victory over Columbia in which she played every second of the game and recorded a career-high nine saves.
“Coming into my freshman season, I didn’t expect to play to be playing, so to be getting playing time is pretty incredible to me and the whole team has been really welcoming,” Fields said.
Her second victory came just days later in a thrilling 10-9 overtime win on the road at William and Mary in the team’s CAA opener. Her success so far has been a result of working hard to overcome adversity.
“I came in with a broken wrist so I wasn’t playing at all in the fall which was difficult,” she said. “When I was injured, I really wanted to get back to playing so that became a huge part of my life. It definitely motivated me to do extra work and watch film and get to know what the team is like.”
The Maryland native was surrounded by the sport growing up. She had two older brothers who played lacrosse and her parents had friends whose kids were all in on it as well.
“Everyone played so they kind of just put me in automatically. We always just threw in a goalie so one day I just went in and I actually happened to be good at it so all my coaches told me I should stick with it, so I just started working on that,” Fields said.
The biology major may pursue other dreams besides lacrosse after college. “I want to do Pre-Vet,” Fields said.” I love animals. I want to get into veterinary school after college so I think that it would be a little difficult playing lacrosse afterwards.”
The freshman still has a while before she gets to that point, and the sport she plays will help her to succeed out of the goal as well.
“When I’m on the field, I don’t think about anything else,” Fields said.” I don’t think about that biology test I have the next day. It just clears my mind and you know if you make a save everybody just gets pumped, so it boosts my confidence, too.”
