Many of us have openly cried for big-time sports to come to AU. For the first time in my tenure here, we have a team that has a legitimate chance of winning the national championship: AU's field hockey team.
For those who missed it, I may have been a bit critical of their playing surface a few weeks ago. My frustration stemmed from personal experience and injuries I had seen occur in intramural football games.
The dangers on any surface-natural or artificial-are real. But there's another factor that Jacobs Field has had on the field hockey team: a real home-field advantage.
Let me backtrack a moment and reassert my point. I witnessed two football players get injured. Maybe I was a bit hasty in my judgment that it was the playing surface's fault. My assumption that cuts on the turf are different in field hockey may also have been hasty, as I admit to having limited knowledge of the sport.
But I do know the playing surface has significantly boosted the play of AU's field hockey team this season. And in my previous column, I did not mean to suggest this turf was not good for the team or that they should return to playing their home games on the road.
For the first time in recent memory, the field hockey team has to walk thirty feet, rather than drive thirty miles, to play their home games. And no longer do they have to fight their home battles on enemy turf, as they did at the University of Maryland.
I'm probably the not the most popular AU field hockey supporter, but I'll give credit where credit is due, and the fifth-ranked Eagles deserve a hell of a lot of it. Paced by superstars Javiera Villagra and Camila Infante, strong defense and strong goaltending of senior Caroline Vo and goalie Allison Fayfich, respectively, the Eagles are a formidable foe for any team nationwide.
So far, sheer dominance has been the season theme. But Steve Jennings' well-oiled machine faces No. 20 Virginia Wednesday at home in its toughest test yet. Should it survive that match-up, a special season could be afoot.
The most impressive thing about the team is its lack of complacency. Being ranked with the Goliaths of Duke, North Carolina, Maryland and Virginia has put somewhat of a chip on the Eagles' shoulder, which has resulted in a methodical dominance unmatched by any other AU teams.
The field hockey team has now surpassed volleyball as the school's most elite squad. And, while to some AU has become a shrine for underachieving, it should stop on the athletic field. I may have been critical of one particular field. But play that occurs on it is amazing and should be celebrated.
It's funny. After my column a few weeks ago, I played in an intramural football game on that field during a rainy day. My first thought was that the gods would punish me for bemoaning field and I'd get hurt.
Fortunately though, I wasn't injured, and ended up winning the game in a model similar to the pattern of the tenants of that field, which have not yet lost.
As they head down the stretch, letdowns and injury seem to be the only thing that can stop AU field hockey from a deep postseason run. They already weathered the absence of the Infante sisters, who went home to Chile last month to play in the Junior World Championships.
All year they've proven people wrong. And while I never meant to say field hockey didn't deserve or need the new field, if anyone took it that way, I hope they prove me wrong, too.
