By Michael McCurdy
Before the Big Ten field hockey conference season began, the Hawkeyes were looking for midfielder Makenna Grewe to be a major part of this team’s success in Big Ten play.
Unfortunately for Iowa, Grewe went down with an injury that has sidelined her since.
In order for Iowa to have a successful season, someone was going to have to step up, and that player was freshman midfielder Sophie Sunderland.
Sunderland is a native of Ipswich, England, which helped establish the recent international recruiting efforts by head coach Lisa Cellucci. She heard about the University of Iowa because a large amount of her friends from back home went to American universities for field hockey.
Similar to Katie Birch, Sunderland first made contact with Iowa assistant coach Michael Boal, who then passed the word to Cellucci that she could play.
As a result, Sunderland went to some camps and ended up visiting two universities; the University of Iowa and Kent State University.
Obviously, Sunderland enjoyed the visit to Iowa City more than the trip to Kent, Ohio, for reasons that had a lot to do with the atmosphere of Iowa City and the ability to connect with the team effortlessly.
“Iowa City is very homely, I’m surrounded by great teammates and coaches,” Sunderland said. “The city is amazing and the support for student-athletes is amazing as well.”
Since Grewe went down, Sunderland has been a vital part of this team’s success. She has logged 280 minutes in conference play, which is, quite impressively, the fifth-most on the team.
Senior Chandler Ackers said she understands the significance Sunderland has on the team and that without her consistent play, the team can forget about grabbing conference wins.
“She’s awesome. Sophie’s in the midfield as one of our key sitters and she starts off our attacks so well,” Ackers said. “She has a great eye for spaces on the field and she can move the ball where it needs to go. She’s just been a great help so far this year and we’re glad to have her out there with the team.”
One of the duties of a field hockey midfielder is to start offensive attacks and make smart, crisp passes up to the forwards for goal opportunities. For freshmen, this skill does not come easy because of the vast difference in pace from high school to college field hockey.
Cellucci said she thinks Sunderland has been tremendous when it comes to her midfielder responsibilities and that her international experience has been a key part in that.
“Sophie’s logged a ton of minutes recently mainly because of the work she’s put in to increase her physical shape,” Cellucci said. “This weekend was probably her two best games. Back-to-back as far as complete games, she made a lot of plays on the offensive and defensive sides and she is going to just keep getting better.
“So, we are just so psyched she is a part of our program and she is going to be a player that you got to keep watching in the next couple of years.”
Follow @MMcurd for more information on the Iowa Field hockey team.
