Shane EvansOver the summer the women’s field hockey team traveled to Ireland. The girls not only had a opportunity to travel to Ireland but they had a chance to experience different ways of playing the sport of field hockey.
While in Ireland, the girls visited different towns and cities during there stay. They traveled to places like Dublin and Kilkenny which are in southern Ireland. They also got to travel to Northern Ireland to visit the city of Belfast.
While playing against the Irish teams, the Cabrini field hockey team soon realized that the Irish played a different style of field hockey. For example, the Irish teams play on a different type of turf.
“The turf seemed to be very flat and it had a lot of water on it,” senior bussiness administration major Alison Sachs said. The Irish teams that they were playing had girls that ranged from ages of fifteen to twenty-one. The Irish teams Cabrini played were not part of a college or university. Most of the Irish teams were club teams.
“The Irish club teams are actually better than the universities and colleges teams,” Sachs said. Most of the girls on the Irish teams have been playing field hockey since they were six years old so they had a lot of experience. With there experience the Irish girls played with a very fast pace. Not only do the women play field hockey but the men do as well. Field hockey in Ireland is their main sport. In Ireland, they don’t call the sport field hockey the call it “hockey.”
Not only did the Cabrini girls play against the Irish teams they had a chance to play with them. The Irish teams were short some players so some of the Cabrini girls joined there team for a few games.
While the girls were not playing in a game they had the opportunity to speak and train with some men and women that are International players. Since the girls played in Northern Ireland and in Southern Ireland they realized that Southern Ireland people were not as involved and dedicated to the sport as the people in Northern Ireland.
The Cabrini girls learned many different and interesting things from playing against the Ireland teams and also speaking and listening to what they had to say.
“It was great experience and we learned a lot,” senior marketing major Becca Gallagher said. The team learned some helpful things that could help them in the season to come this fall. “Our goal as a team this year is to win the PAC championship and I think this experience will help us to reach our goal,” Sachs said.
