Q&A With Field Hockey's Kristin Harris
11/10/2004 7:00:00 AM | Field Hockey
Nov. 10, 2004
COLLEGE PARK, Md. - Q&A with Maryland field hockey player Kristin Harris. Harris is one of six seniors on the team and a two-time co-captain. A defender/midfielder from Lititz, Pa., she is a life science major and has been named to the National Field Hockey Coaches Association Mid-Atlantic All-Region team twice.
Characterize this senior class.
KH: We're a very tight-knit group who has experienced a lot together. We're very good friends, on and off the field. And we've learned to communicate and appreciate each other even though there are differences between us, which is really cool.
What's it been like playing with them these last four years?
KH: It's been really great. Each one of them has their own style of play and is really good in their own special way. Like Betty (Sara Silvetti) is really under control, Col (Colleen Barbieri) has such speed and tenacity up on the forward line. You can learn something different from each player. It's been really fun, especially going through really tough games on the field with them. Emotionally, you grow closer and it's really neat.
Your freshman year, you played in the NCAA Championship game and lost to Michigan even though Maryland dominated the game. Talk about that game.
KH: It's always a tough one to talk about. It was definitely a good learning experience. As freshmen on the field, it was very shocking because we had dominated the whole game and, I think from all the stats, we should have probably won and we didn't. Looking at the seniors, it was especially hard. I was really upset just because I knew it was their last game and we came so close to achieving everything but just fell short in just one game.
With this being your senior year, do you use that game as extra motivation?
KH: I don't like to use the "it's my senior year so I want to win it all," because I think it should be motivation each year to win. But it is definitely added incentive. I think it's added motivation to win the whole thing in your last year. I think that we [the senior class] see we've come full circle. We were there as freshmen and it would be great to do it again as a senior and to win it this time.
What is it like playing with this current team?
KH: We are very different team than any other year I've been here. We are so different, personality-wise, but we all get along so well on and off the field. We are really tight and are a very diverse team, which I think makes us really special, on and off the field. We have foreign players, we have local players and players from others parts of the U.S., which leads to personality differences and we appreciate each other and take from each other what we can. It's really great.
What do you think this team can accomplish?
KH: This team can accomplish whatever it wants to, including winning the NCAA Championship. We have all the tools do it. We just need to put it together and make it happen.
The ACC is the strongest conference in the country in field hockey. Talk about competing in this conference and what you hope to do.
KH: We've been talking all season about achieving a new level of play. We're going to have to do that in the ACC because it's one of the stronger conferences in the country and we're going to have to achieve a new standard of play. We want to prove to all the other teams that we are for real.
Looking ahead, what do you hope to do in the NCAA Tournament?
KH: I hope we can peak at the right time this year and play the best hockey of the season when we need to. Apply everything we have learned throughout the season and fine tune things, make them sharper and utilize them the right way. It's important we achieve good, structural balance on the field and I hope that comes into play in NCAA's.
Senior Day is coming up on Oct. 29. Have you thought about it?
KH: I have and it's shocking to me that it's here already. It's sad and I try not to think about it too much. The time has flown by so fast. I remember watching the seniors my freshman year and thinking I had so long before I'm there and now, I'm here! When the seniors talk about it with each other, we get so emotional and can't talk about it very much. It says a lot for the program and for the team that we're getting so emotional about something that's not even here yet because we've enjoyed ourselves so much.
What's it been like being a Terp for four years?
KH: It is a life-changing experience. You learn such great lessons and you meet such great, life-long friends. I don't think it can't not be a life-changing experience. It's been so fun and there have been so many great memories. It definitely makes you a better person.
What's going to be the most memorable memory?
KH: Well, hopefully, that's yet to come! We'll see. For me, it's being out on the field in tough games where you might go into overtime with a really good team and seeing your team really fight for each other hard on the field and then winning. There have been a few overtime games that were really emotional just because you see everyone fighting so hard and they're fatigued. And then when you win together, it's emotional and it's a bonding experience.
What do you think it will be like after you play your last game of field hockey?
KH: I've been playing sports ever since I was really little and I can't imagine what it's going to be like to not be physically active like that and not have that intensity any more. I definitely have to be involved in sports, whether it'd be personally just to stay in shape or coaching.
Do you think being at Maryland and playing field hockey has prepared you for life after college?
KH: It has prepared me the best anything could have for the real world. You experience so many things that teach you life lessons in a short amount of time. In a span of four years here, I've learned so much about myself and other people and how interact with them than the whole rest of my life, combined. I am definitely prepared to handle anything that comes my way. It's made me a stronger person and find out who I am as a person.
What are you going to miss?
KH: I'm going to miss the intensity of competition. You can work out on your own but it will never be that intensity you feel on the field. I will miss my teammates tremendously. The every day things you experience as a team - the joking, the camaraderie. I will miss that a lot. The ability to be able to talk to anyone, anytime and someone will be there for you. That's the biggest thing.
