Mollie Mackler Blog #5

DURHAM, N.C. - Duke senior Mollie Mackler will keep a weekly blog for the 2011-12 season, giving Duke fans an inside look at life on the Blue Devil women's lacrosse team.

Look for Mollie's blog every week during the year on GoDuke.com.

Mackler Blog #5 (October 19, 2011)

Greetings Readers,

Get ready for a blog loaded with content as this week's edition is a bit of a double issue featuring the skinny on fall break and our first fall ball away trip! With a short and straightforward week before fall break, I decided to hold off for this blog and fill it to the brim with duke lax details.

FALL BREAK
Fall break came just in time this year, breaking up a tsunami of midterms for most players and providing some very much needed down time. A number of players went home to their Northeast and Mid-Atlantic abodes to spend some quality time with their families (including a flock of freshmen that have never showered so fast after practice in their lives - understandably).

This fall break was different though in that many players hung around Durham and experienced some of the things that the Bull City has to offer. In the swing of Duke and our lives as student athletes, sometimes it's hard to fit in simple and relaxing activities like watching countless romantic comedies, cooking wholesome meals together, or even hiking, for example. Believe it or not, a number of us did all of those things, including hiking at the Eno river. Emma Tucci, Taylor Virden, Hannah Fisher, Kat Thomas, Molly Quirke and our good friend Rebecca Krom took a hike along the Eno River in Durham, which is just 20 minutes away. Emma Tucci showed off her geologist skill that she learned in an EOS class last year, identifying some rock strata as quartz. Taylor Virden scaled a tree and spent a reflective moment out on the limb. Hannah Fisher even spotted an endangered praying mantis and we spotted many turtles and fish as we trekked along the river. It got weird in a great way.

Almost everyone who stayed for fall break also went to Dayglow! Hannah Fisher is the team's techno enthusiast, followed by Lauren Martin, who both attended the event with many other members of the team as well as some soccer players and track athletes who were around over break with us. It is a techno paint party, and pictures and stories from the event proved it to be a blast. I was busy hanging out with Kerstin's three children during Dayglow while she attended former player, captain, coach, and general conqueror of Duke lacrosse, Stef Sparks' wedding. A few current players attended the wedding ceremony, which was absolutely amazing. Recent alumna Virginia Crotty cried, obviously. Sam Ekstrand's children stole the show with their enchantingly adorable presence -- The girls (ages two, six and eight) looked like princesses and the boys (age six) were dressed to the nines as ring bearers (white gloves and everything). It was great to see all of our amazing alums over the weekend as well. Check out our facebook page for pictures!

PLAY FOR PARKINSONS
This weekend the team embarked on the team's first away trip of the year. That means movies on the bus, story telling, game playing, endless banter, a whole lot of tweeting, and most importantly -- WaWa stops, and lest I forget the musical stylings of Kerrin Maurer and Taylor Virden. Brigid Smith showed of her rapping skills as well, and even sang Like a Prayer at one point. I wasn't kidding in previous blogs about a Virden/Maurer album. I would say be ready for that to drop, but no one will ever be ready.

The entire weekend in Baltimore/Virginia was a blast. We learned a lot about who we are as a team and we got to play some incredible competition. We took our opportunities to play seriously, but with no film, no gameplans and no scoreboard, we did our best to have fun with it, too. We had a lot of fresh faces on the field, which was exciting to see. I watched proudly as my roommate for the weekend, Angel Thompson made her first college saves against Loyola! Angel and I did some big time goalie bonding, including watching Beyonce videos before departing for Sunday's tournament, which set the tone for the day for sure (The team has been increasingly into watching music videos lately). We literally ran from game to game across Episcopal High School's beautiful campus, giving the day a high-school-tournament feel, evoking distant or not so distant memories. It was thrilling for the defense to play together as a unit against fantastic opponents. The offense, which is finding its flow, strung together some beautiful plays that had me celebrating alone near the goal, per usual.

Although we walked away from the weekend feeling confident about some aspects of our play, areas for improvement were exposed to us as well. In the coming weeks, we are working to pride ourselves on certain things that we haven't yet fully developed into our game. Luckily, that's what the fall is for and relatively speaking, it's far from over. I hope you've enjoyed this week's double feature, and I thank you for your patience and loyalty. Come back next week for more!

Nature hikes, royal weddings, WaWa milkshakes, dancing like Beyonce and Duke Lax Love,
@MollieTweetler

Players Mentioned

Virginia Crotty

Hannah Fisher

Rebecca Krom

Mollie Mackler

Lauren Martin

Molly Quirke

Kat Thomas

Emma Tucci

Taylor Virden

Duke information