After struggling through preseason her freshman year at Richmond, midfielder Lena Voelmle was asked by then-Spiders’ head coach Ange Bradley to redshirt. The decision was a blow to Voelmle’s confidence.

‘I was devastated when she talked to me about redshirting,’ Voelmle said. ‘I talked to my parents, I felt like I was letting them down – and I wanted to prove to (Bradley) that I could play.’

So Voelmle refused to take the redshirt and proved she belonged on the field. As soon as Voelmle took the field against William and Mary in Richmond’s fourth game of her freshman season, she received a one-touch pass and scored – instantly erasing doubts about her readiness to make a difference.

‘It was really frustrating, because I’d never get in games,’ Voelmle said. ‘Everyone else would get in but me. But I stuck with it and eventually she put me in, and the first game I got in I touched the ball, it was a one-touch and I scored.’

Then again, Voelmle is full of surprises. Now at No. 3 Syracuse, the typically soft-spoken sophomore midfielder has risen from the status of ‘project player’ to anchoring one of the fiercest defenses in Division I field hockey after following Bradley to Syracuse (15-1) from Richmond.

‘I saw Lena play, and I knew that she’d be a work in progress,’ Bradley said. ‘But she sped the progress up a lot quicker than what I thought. She’s so steady and so consistent, and she just goes unnoticed because she just does her job, nothing flashy nothing fancy, but without her we’d have a huge hole in the midfield.’

It may be that humble, hard-working style that is allowing Voelmle to keep surprising opposing teams, including No. 6 Connecticut.

Before the Orange’s matchup with the Huskies Oct. 18, UConn head coach Nancy Stevens talked about how she respected Syracuse and ‘those two Richmond girls’ – referring to fellow Richmond transfers Lindsey Conrad and Shannon Taylor while leaving Voelmle out of the equation.

Despite Stevens’ omission, the aggressive Voelmle stifled the country’s 15th-ranked offense to a near deadlock, as SU allowed one goal in the 1-0 loss.

‘(Lena) is an awesome player,’ Taylor said. ‘She’s always working 24/7, and it was great to see her step up in that UConn game.’

Unfortunately for Voelmle, the only thing she was awarded for the closely contested matchup with UConn was a yellow card – yet another surprise.

‘Lena is really funny, but she’s pretty soft-spoken,’ sophomore forward Kristin Girouard said. ‘She’s not someone I would think of getting a card during the game.’

Taylor added that the team may also get a laugh out of seeing Voelmle getting carded, although ‘it depends on how she got the card,’ Taylor said.

Sneaking up on opponents wasn’t always easy for Voelmle. The preseason leading up to 2008 was full of difficult training in the Orange’s rigorous schedule.

Bradley said she remembers one particular drill that helped Voelmle evolve into the defender she is at this point in the season.

The coach would pit Voelmle against freshman midfielder Martina Loncarica and force her to stop Loncarica’s advanced stick skills and signature spin move.

‘Oh, it’s fun when she and (Martina) go at it,’ Bradley said. ‘Because (Martina) does all her tricks and everything, and initially when (Martina) first came here in the spring she would spin, and Lena would be like ‘How can I defend it?”

Eventually though, Voelmle got control of Loncarica’s moves and a better handle on what it means to be an active defender.

‘It’s awesome,’ Bradley said. ‘You know, Lena’s confidence has grown tremendously.’

There’s still one more thing for Voelmle to accomplish this season. Voelmle, whose mother, Mariann, was a member of the 1978 West Chester championship field hockey team, would like a championship of her own.

‘It would be good to have bragging rights,’ she laughed.

ctorr@syr.edu

Published on October 22, 2008 at 12:00 pm