Mollie Mackler Blog #6

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 #6 (November 3, 2011)

Hello Readers!
The last fall ball season of my career at Duke has come to an end. Senior moms and dads, I apologize if that was abrupt, but it's true! Four years of scrimmages, dodge ball, wall ball, X-runs, 30-60-90's, hang cleans, squats and Duke lax Halloweens have all wrapped up before my eyes. More importantly, in terms of the team as a whole, we've come a long way this fall ball season and are eager to tackle more work in November.

We've started to get our chemistry flowing and have a much stronger sense of ourselves as a team. Many players have used time wisely to develop themselves and seek individual coaching sessions. Although it's clear that we've had our noses to the grindstone, fall ball at Duke isn't exclusively about X's and O's. I'm not sure if you've checked out the fall ball pictures on our facebook page (starring Taylor Virden and her creepy short sleeved undershirt), but they illustrate a lot of fall weirdness and fun. One rich fall tradition is High School Day. For some people, high school was only a few months ago, but for the dinosaurs on the team, it has been 4-5 years. We dusted off our old pinnies and shorts and repped our respective high school and club teams. The most amazing outfit by far was Sydney Peterson's Notre Dame Prep "gym uniform," which was a blue dress with her initials monogrammed onto it. Fantastic. It's always fun to see the old high school hairdos, too -- from ponytail braids to power buns.

We wrapped up the fall ball season with a fast-paced scrimmage against Florida and the Duke Invitational Tournament. We even snuck in some man-up and man-down practice with Florida after the scrimmage, which proved educational. Ker always tells us to trust the process and things will fall into place. I think that so many of the things that we've been focusing on in practice came through in a lot of our games this past weekend and that we're starting to come into our own. We were winning the 50/50 battles that we set out to win, and proved to ourselves how cohesive we can be as an entire unit when we really focus. I always want to call out particular players, but I literally just don't have enough space in the blog. Although I know we grow so much during November, winter break and preseason, I am chomping at the bit to see what we look like come February. I can't forget a shout out to Rosemary Wenger and all the parents that helped put together an awesome tailgate! For those of you who haven't experienced our post-game tailgates, they are unmatched.

Last, but not least, I need to touch on one of the richest Duke lacrosse traditions- Duke Lax Halloween. Every year, each class on the team comes to Ker's house dressed as a group. Because the average class size is around 8 or 9, each class usually comes as some kind of identifiable group from movies or other pop-culture references. This year was quite peculiar in that it was the first year that two classes have dressed up as the same thing! The juniors and seniors both came dressed as characters from Toy Story! Perhaps we have been spending too much time together in our apartment complex. Makenzie Hommel and I showed up in almost identical Sheriff Woody outfits!

The coaches named the sophomores champions with the creative idea of dressing up as people who have recently died. I must admit that as losers (for lack of better word) for four consecutive years we were, with our teeming competitive spirits boiling, a little bit bitter. The coaches named Emma Tucci as an individual champion as Amy Winehouse, and I must admit that it was pretty good, tats and props included. I thought the freshmen gave a good effort as Pilgrims, especially with added props such as the Mayflower and Plymouth Rock. Mie Graham made her Buzz Lightyear costume pretty much from scratch as did Hannah Fisher for Bo Peep (she never ceases to amaze in any artistic endeavor).

Before I sign off, my lovely and loyal readers, I need to give a final nod to some junior parents who showed their true colors during the Halloween competition. We always stagger our grand entrances to Ker's house by at least 15 minutes to allow the effects of the costumes to really soak into the coaches deciding minds. In the time between the juniors departure to Ker's house and our arrival, Mickey Graham, Don Hommel and Lori Hommel helped our class get our finishing touches together for our costumes. Mr. Hommel somehow managed to cut the piping from Lowe's that Kat Thomas used for her slinky-dog body extension (he looks as though he could effortlessly tip a truck over). Mrs. Graham and Mrs. Hommel did everything they could to help us get the finished product polished. This competition is not taken lightly by any means, and for these parents to help us in the clutch when their own children were wearing the same costumes was incredible. I think their actions speaks to the type of families and people within our program, and win or lose on Halloween, it's the teamwork, sacrifice, and fun that make the memories stick.

Players Mentioned

Hannah Fisher

Mie Graham

Makenzie Hommel

Mollie Mackler

Sydney Peterson

Kat Thomas

Emma Tucci

Taylor Virden

Duke information